Box Score 1 | Box Score 2
Game 1:  Box Score in HTML Format  ||  Box Score in PDF Format
Game 2:  Box Score in HTML Format  ||  Box Score in PDF Format

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -- The 17th-ranked Christopher Newport suffered a pair of setbacks in their season-opening doubleheader on Sunday afternoon, at the hands of tenth-ranked Virginia Wesleyan College (4-0). The Captains (0-2) dropped a 2-0 decision in the first game, and a 5-2 final score in the second. 

Against one of the top teams in the nation, sophomore Krista Lewis dazzled in her senior debut, but it would not be enough as she fell to 0-1. She pitched a complete game and kept the Marlins off balance for most of the day, allowing just an inside-the-park home run in the first, and a manufactured run on a sacrifice fly in the second. From that point on, Lewis gave up just two hits and struck out three, giving her four total K's in the start. She gave up just four hits in the game, one walk and two earned runs. 

Unfortunately, the offense could not get to Marlins' ace Mackenzie Creech in game one. CNU had just five hits in the first game, led by a 2-for-3 effort from Sabrina Hill. Sophomore Meagan Jones and Tori Clarke each added one hit, while rookie Micah Kingston, in relief of an injured Kelley Foate, smacked her first career double. Creech scatted the five CNU hits and picked up her second win of the season with a complete game, striking out three. 

In game two, the Marlins took a two-run lead after one with a pair of RBI singles. Kristina Karagiorgis drove in one and sophomore Kayla Dost added the second. 

CNU would cut the lead in half in the second inning when rookie Karlee Holzbach blasted her first career home run in her first career start behind the plate. The two-out solo shot made the score 2-1 in the second inning. 

Virginia Wesleyan added a run in both the third and fourth innings to add to the lead, 4-1. Courtney Bogan stole home in the third inning, but Hanah Marshall escaped the bases-loaded jam with just one run allowed. Then, in the fourth, Marshall gave up one run on three hits and two errors. Tori Higginbotham drove in the run with a single. 

The Captains would get a sacrifice fly from Sabrina Hill in the top of the sixth to cut the lead back to two, but the Marlins responded with one in the bottom half for the final score of 5-2. Marshall finished with the complete game, allowing five runs, four earned, on nine hits. Karagiorgis started for the Marlins, holding CNU to just two runs scored on five hits, walking four and striking outt three. 

Holzbach added another hit following her home run, going 2-for-3 with a RBI and run scored. Jones added her second hit of the day, and senior Kristina McLaughlin was 1-for-3 as well. 

The Captains are back in action on Tuesday, Feb. 25 as they travel to Randolph-Macon College for a doubleheader set to begin at 1:30 pm.