HARTSVILLE, S.C. -- The fifth-seeded Lady Railsplitters (23-26) commence the 2016 South Atlantic Conference Softball Championship at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, when they square off against in-state rivals and the four-seeded Carson-Newman Eagles (29-19) at Byerley Park in Hartsville, South Carolina. Here's everything you need to know:
 
SAC Championship Central - April 28-May 1
 
Thursday, April 28 vs. Carson-Newman - 5:30 p.m. Live Stats/Video
 
Quick Hits:
-The Lady Railsplitters swept their second straight SAC series this past Saturday, taking two games from the Newberry Wolves at Dorothy Neely Field to earn a share of fifth place in the final SAC standings. By virtue of its split with Wingate, Lincoln Memorial will serve as the No. 5 seed for the SAC Championship. In game one of the Newberry series, the Lady Railsplitters entered the bottom of the seventh inning trailing 5-3, but scored three runs with two outs in that inning to grab a walk-off victory. On a wild play, Jennifer Moose (Statesville, N.C.) stole home to score the tying run, while Meredith Johnson (Kenly, N.C.) drove in the game-winning run with a single back up the middle. In game two, the Lady Railsplitters raced out to a 9-2 lead after five innings before withstanding a late run to complete the sweep with a 9-6 victory.
-Moose was left off of all three All-SAC teams, but the Statesville, North Carolina native and junior catcher is one of the hottest hitters currently operating in the South Atlantic Conference. She enters the SAC tournament riding an eight-game hitting streak with multiple hits in five of her last seven games. She went 4 for 7 with four runs, a double, a home run and five RBI in that doubleheader against Brevard. She is sporting a .435/.468/.841 slash line in SAC play, ranking second, fourth and first in those categories, respectively.
-Senior right-handed pitcher Samantha Smith (Knoxville, Tenn.) was named to the All-SAC honorable mention squad, due in large part to a late-season surge. After seeing her season record drop to 5-8 after a 2-1 loss at Brevard on April 4, Smith earned a win in six of her last eight appearances to complete the regular season with an 11-9 record and 69 strikeouts over 129 innings of work. She threw back-to-back complete-game shutouts at Mars Hill on April 20 before holding Newberry to just five hits over 5 2/3 innings in the regular-season finale.
-With a win on Thursday, the Lady Railsplitters would advance to play the winner of No. 1 Lenoir-Rhyne and No. 8 Anderson on Friday at 12:30 p.m. A loss would send Lincoln Memorial into the loser's bracket, though, where they would have to face the loser of the L-R/Anderson game at 12:30 as well. The complete SAC Championship schedule can be found here.
-Johnson has reached base safely in 12 consecutive games dating back to that doubleheader at Brevard on April 4. Over that span, the Kenly, North Carolina native has lifted her batting average from .244 to .269. She has at least one hit in five straight games with an RBI in three of her last five appearances.
 
Notes on the Eagles:
-Carson-Newman enters the SAC tournament in a little bit of a funk with losses in six of its last nine games. That includes three straight losses, as the Eagles split a doubleheader at Tusculum on April 20 before wrapping up the regular season with 1-0 and 4-3 losses to the SAC Champion Lenoir-Rhyne Bears.
-The Eagles are led by All-SAC first team second baseman Elayna Siebert, All-SAC second team first baseman Lindsay Dean and All-SAC honorable mention infielder Kristen Toppel. Siebert is sporting a .373/.433/.576 slash line with 12 doubles, four triples, four home runs and 35 RBI, while Dean leads the SAC in home runs with 13. Dean is batting .285 with 39 RBI. Toppel has accounted for a .350 batting average, a .435 on-base percentage, 13 doubles and seven steals.
-Carson-Newman's offense has taken a turn for the worse over the last month of the season. After batting .283 and slugging .447 with 27 home runs in 24 games in March, the Eagles have hit .229, slugged .321 and accounted for just three home runs in 14 games in April.
-On the mound, the Lady Railsplitters will likely have to go through junior Allison Webster, who is currently 19-11 this season with a 1.99 ERA and 241 strikeouts in 204.1 innings of work. Webster completely baffled the Lady Railsplitters in game one of their regular-season series, allowing just three hits while striking out eight in a complete-game shutout. The Lady Railsplitters built some confidence against her in game two, though, collecting six hits and two runs in 2 2/3 innings.
-While the Lady Railsplitters will be trying to win the program's first-ever SAC tournament, Carson-Newman aims for its 10th SAC tournament title under the direction of legendary head coach Vickee Kazee-Hollifield, the SAC's all-time winningest coach. The Eagles haven't won the SAC tournament since 2009.
 
Series History:
-The Lady Railsplitters and Eagles split their regular-season doubleheader at Dorothy Neely Field, with Carson-Newman nabbing a 3-0 win in game one before Lincoln Memorial earned the split with an 8-0 five-inning triumph.
-Lincoln Memorial is 20-46 all-time against Carson-Newman, which has won 16 of the last 21 meetings. The Lady Railsplitters and Eagles last met in the SAC tournament in 2013, when Lincoln Memorial captured a 9-5 win in Salisbury, North Carolina.