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HARRISONBURG, Va. -- Christopher Newport peppered the diamond with 14 hits, including multi-hit performances from four players, but the Captains (7-8) suffered a 9-7 setback to Eastern Mennonite University (12-5) on the road Tuesday. Head coach John Harvell announced a pair of changes to this week's schedule, including postponing Wednesday's contest against Southern Virginia to Thursday, March 13. 

Making the most out of their first starts this season, juniors Curtis Pittman and Tommy Kane helped lead the offense, with three-hit performances. One of the biggest hits of the day came off of Pittman's bat when he blasted his first career home run to tie the game in the top of the fifth. 

The Captains took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second, when Travis Younger singled to lead off the inning. After a sacrifice bunt and a groundball moved him up to third base, another grounder plated the first run of the game. Preston Grissom drove in the run for CNU. 

The lead would not hold, though, as Eastern Mennonite scored four runs on rookie starter Michael Thomas (0-1) in the bottom of the inning. The first four runners reached for the Royals, including back-to-back doubles to score a pair and take the lead. EMU would add a pair of RBI groundouts to build the lead to 4-1. 

Leading off the top of the third, senior Billy Steel homered to cut the lead to two, 4-2. It was his fourth blast of the season, tying his career high, and came the same day he was named to the D3baseball.com National Team of the Week for the second time this season.

Thomas settled down, retiring nine straight batters over the next 3.0 innings to hold onto the two-run lead. In the top of the fifth, Justin Weaver singled to right center to lead off, bringing up Pittman. The 6-3 designated hitter blasted the game-tying two-run homer over the left field wall, looking to breathe new life into the CNU offense. 

Unfortunately for the Captains, though, the score would not remain tied for long. In the bottom half of the inning, Eastern Mennonite posted its second four-run inning of the game to pull back ahead 8-4. Pittman triggered another rally in the top of the seventh, leading off with a single. Younger followed with a base hit and the two runners moved up on a sacrifice bunt by Jacob Houston. Kyle Corwin plated the pair with a single up the middle and then came in to score on a sacrifice fly later in the inning. Rookie A.J. Nicely picked up the RBI for CNU. 

The home team tacked on one more run for the final tally, 9-7, and closed out the win. 

Pittman (3-5), Younger (3-5) and Kane (3-5) each finished with three hits to lead the Captains. Weaver added a two hit day for CNU as the 3-4-5 batters combined for eight hits in the game. Pittman drove in a pair and scored twice, while Younger also crossed the plate twice. 

Schedule Change: The Captains were originally slated to take on Southern Virginia on Wednesday afternoon at 2:00 pm. CNU will see that game bumped back one day, to Thursday, March 13 with start time still at 2:00 pm. The Captains road game originally scheduled for Thursday at Virginia Wesleyan will be rescheduled at a later date.