DANVILLE, Va. -- The nationally-ranked Christopher Newport baseball team will continue their seven-game road trip on Sunday, heading to Averett University for a mid-afternoon matchup with the Cougars at Owen-Fulton Field in Danville, Va. The Captains (13-4) will face Averett (7-17) at 2:00 pm in non-conference action.
Live stats and video will be available of the matchup starting at 2:00 pm. Links to both, hosted by Averett, will be available at CNUsports.com.
CNU owns a 35-16 advantage in the all-time series, which was last played in 2013 when the Captains closed out their tenure in the USA South Athletic Conference. The teams first met in 1996 and played every year until 2013. Sunday's matchup reignites that rivalry with CNU winners of five of the last six matchups.
The Captains enter riding a five-game winning streak as they have climbed to No. 16 in the nation in both the ABCA and D3baseball.com Top 25 polls. Offensively, CNU is hitting .316 as a team, led by infielders
Seth Woodard, at .452, and
Nick DiNapoli, with a .424 mark. Woodard is riding a 17-game hitting streak and ranks second on the team with 24 RBI. DiNapoli was inserted into the starting lineup after an injury to starter
Austin Henry, but even after Henry's return, has stuck in due to his hot bat with 14 hits in 33 at-bats this season.
The CNU bullpen has been led by sophomore
Brian Owens (1-0, 2.35 ERA) and senior
Joe Burris (3 saves, 2.84 ERA). Owens has struck out 28 batters in 15.1 innings while Burris has appeared in a team-high 10 games already this season. In the starting rotation,
Josh Husby (2-0, 1.29 ERA) and
Gray Goodrich (2-1, 4.91 ERA) have burst onto the scene as impact rookies while
Thomas Packert (3-0, 3.70 ERA) and
Logan Harrelson (2-0, 2.73 ERA) anchor the starting unit.
Averett will host the Captains after a long road trip home from Covenant College in Georgia this weekend, dropping two of three. The Cougars did win the last game of the series, 12-5, and will look to carry that momentum into the matchup against CNU. Kyle Vidano leads the offense, hitting .355 with 21 runs scored and 15 stolen bases, while Dallas Smithers is the top run producer with 14 RBI.
