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APPLETON, Wis. – Christopher Newport suffered an opening round setback today, dropping a 12-7 decision to the fourth-ranked St. Thomas University Tommies (39-8). A nine-run third inning hurt the Captains (34-9) as the CNU pitching staff held the potent offense to just three runs and six hits in the other eight frames.
 
CNU took a 2-0 lead in the second as they were getting to First Team All-American Steve Maher in the early going. Senior Ben Lenda plated second baseman Matt Shoemaker on a sacrifice fly, and junior DH Christopher McDougal added a two-out RBI single to right center for the early lead.
 
On the other side of the ball, junior starter Greg Goldsmith looked terrific early, retiring the side in order in the first and adding a pair of strikeouts in the second inning. In the third, though, St. Thomas got to Goldsmith as they batted around. The Tommies smacked nine hits in the inning, eight of which were singles, and benefitted from three errors in the inning to score nine runs and open up a big lead.
 
With the game still early, the Captains added two more in the bottom of the third when senior Steven Lindemuth hammered a long shot to left-center field, that just missed clearing the wall with the bases loaded. The two-run double cut the lead to 9-4 with six innings remaining.
 
Maher settled in for St. Thomas, holding the Captains to just one hit over the next four innings before giving way to reliever Mark Ulrich. After retiring the side in the 8^th, the Captains made some noise in the bottom of the ninth inning.
 
After a leadoff single from Lenda, McDougal stepped in and crushed a two-run no-doubter over the left field wall, cutting the lead to 12-6 with the homer. Shannon Mark singled and was followed by back-to-back walks from Billy Steel and Connor Madden to bring up the middle of the Captains lineup with nobody out.

A sacrifice fly from Luke Saunders made it 12-7, but the fireworks would end there as Tommy Danczyk shut the door with back-to-back strikeouts with the bases loaded.
 
Maher improved to 13-1 on the season while Goldsmith took the loss, falling to 6-3 on the season.
 
CNU will fall to the elimination bracket and will take on the losing team from Friday's nightcap between #1 Marietta (43-7) and Whitworth (30-14). That game will be played at 1:15 pm on Saturday.