VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. -- The 16th-ranked Christopher Newport baseball team is back in action for the first time in a week on Thursday as they travel to Virginia Wesleyan University for a 3:00 pm first pitch. The Captains (12-4) will close out the season series against the Marlins (8-6) with the road trip across the water, after defeating Virginia Wesleyan at home earlier this season, 17-0.
Junior
Seth Woodard also collected another national honor on Wednesday afternoon, as he was named the National College Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) honorable mention national hitter of the week. Carson Cox of Concordia was pegged the National Hitter of the Week, but Woodard earned special recognition for his tremendous performance during the Captains' spring break trip to Myrtle Beach. After earning CAC Player of the Week and D3baseball.com National Team of the Week accolades, Woodard becomes the first Captain to earn the national plaudits from the NCBWA this season.
The junior third baseman hit .833 (10-for-12) and scored five runs with five RBI in three games last week. He smacked three doubles and added an .846 on-base percentage and 1.083 slugging percentage while reaching base in all but two of his plate appearances.
He will carry that momentum into Thursday's contest against the Marlins, as CNU looks to continue a four-game winning streak away from home. The Captains moved up to 16th in the D3baseball.com Top 25 and were also tabbed No. 16 in the first regular season rankings announced by the ABCA on Tuesday. Leaning on a potent offense and strong starting pitching, Christopher Newport has won eight of their last ten games.
CNU is averaging over 8.5 runs per game behind Woodard and the rest of the offense. Behind Woodard's team-leading .466 average, sophomore
Nick DiNapoli is also hitting over .400 with a .424 mark. Rookie
Conner Clark has 16 walks and ranks third on the team with a .345 mark at the plate while junior
Nicholas Baham and senior
Brandon Ginch have each added a team-best four home runs.
On the mound,
Logan Harrelson (2-0, 0.75 ERA) and
Thomas Packert (3-0, 3.18 ERA) lead a strong rotation that also includes rookies
Josh Husby (2-0, 1.29 ERA) and
Gray Goodrich (2-1, 4.91 ERA). Out of the bullpen,
Joe Burris has nine appearances with a 2.53 ERA, striking out 14 batters in 10.2 innings of work.
Virginia Wesleyan bounced back with three straight wins after a four game skid, sweeping Eastern Mennonite in a doubleheader before downing Salisbury, 10-5. Senior Corey King leads the team with a .442 average while belting six extra-base hits while sophomore Jacob Pilarski is hitting .409 for the Marlins. Pilarski is also one of the team's top pitchers, boasting a 3-0 record with 23 strikeouts in 18.2 innings of work.
Live stats will be available for the action from Virginia Beach, with the link found on CNUsports.com.
