Box Score in HTML Format
FROSTBURG, Md. -- Despite a sensational performance from senior outfielder
Tommy Vitaletti, the 20th-ranked Christopher Newport baseball team bowed out of the 2016 Capital Athletic Conference Championship Tournament on Thursday morning, suffering an 8-5 loss to host and top-seeded Frostburg State University. Vitaletti was 5-for-5 with 4 RBI, three doubles and a run scored, but 12th-ranked Frostburg State jumped out to an early lead and held off a late comeback attempt by the Captains.
CNU falls to 25-14 this season while the Bobcats are now 24-9 and will advance to play in another elimination game on Friday.
Christopher Newport made some noise in the final inning, scoring twice and bringing the tying run to the plate in the top of the 9th. With one out, rookie
Austin Henry singled into left field and then raced home on Vitaletti's third two-bagger of the day, cutting the lead to 8-4. After
Brandon Ginch was hit by a pitch and
Keith Roberts walked to load the bases, senior
Connor Henderson plated another run with a groundball to the right side of the infield. He beat out the play to first and avoided a double play to extend the inning, but Frostburg closer Nick Huff closed out the win for his league-leading ninth save of the season.
Sophomore Greg Schneider (6-0) earned the win for Frostburg State, allowing three earned runs over 7.0 innings in his seventh quality start of the season. The All-American struck out five, the second fewest in a start this season, but the ten hits he allowed to CNU were scattered as the Captains offense left 11 runners on base during the game.
CNU did jump out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first, when Vitaletti drove in
Jordan Mason in his first at-bat. Mason led off with a single and moved up to second on a groundball by Henry. Vitaletti then pounded a clean single up the middle to chase home the game's first run.
Against CNU starter,
Austin Slough (4-2), the Bobcats would take the lead in the bottom of the inning, taking advantage of an error and a wild pitch to score twice. Vitaletti would tie the game back up in the top of the 3rd with the first of three RBI doubles, again chasing home Mason. The rookie singled up the middle to start the inning and moved up on a sacrifice bunt by Henry. Vitaletti then delivered a laser into right center field to tie the game at 2-2.
In the bottom of the 3rd, the home team took control, scoring five runs against Slough to take a 7-2 lead. Jamaal Windom kicked things off with a one-out triple, coming into score on a groundball to third base. After a strikeout, Brad Garrante delivered an RBI double, but the rookie starter for CNU looked primed to avoid big damage when he got a groundball on the next play. Another CNU error, however, allowed a run to score and extended the inning for Devin Bell, who promptly delivered a two-run home run to open up the big lead.
CNU was unable to recover despite a stellar relief effort from four pitchers out of the bullpen, combining to allow just one run over the final five innings of work.
Caleb Myers tossed two clean innings with one strikeout, and was relieved by a shutout frame by
Joe Burris.
Ryan Powell allowed one run on two hits, striking out one in the 7th, followed by senior
Blake Ream, striking out one in the 8th to finish out the top notch relief effort by CNU.
On the other side of the ball, CNU scored twice against reliever Ryan Callahan, with Vitaletti's second of three RBI doubles coming in the 7th inning before the two-run ninth frame by the Captains.
With the performance, Vitaletti raised his batting average to .391 with 45 RBI, 45 runs scored and 16 doubles. His 28 extra-base hits are tied for the most for a CNU player since Connor Henderon in 2011. Mason also finished the game 3-for-5 with 2 runs scored, raising his 2016 batting average to .338.
Frostburg State will now advance to play at 12:30 pm on Friday afternoon, with their opponent yet to be determined.
