NEWPORT NEWS, Va. -- In an early season heavyweight battle between a pair of top-ten teams, the 7th-ranked Christopher Newport baseball team remained undefeated (6-0) with a 4-3 win over No. 4 Randolph-Macon College (0-1) on Tuesday afternoon. CNU scored four times in the bottom of the seventh to take the lead and held on for a one-run win against the regional rival.
The win snaps a seven game losing streak against the Yellow Jackets and runs the Captains' season-opening win streak to six. It is the second longest season-opening win streak in head coach
John Harvell's tenure and the third best start in program history. It is also the 22nd win over a top-10 opponent for Harvell's Captains in his 19-year tenure.
The Captains faced Randolph-Macon in their season opener after seeing their first five games cancelled due to poor weather. The Yellow Jackets sent senior All-American Nick Roth to the mound and the right-hander was terrific through six scoreless innings. He finished his debut with 6.0 IP, 1 hit, and 5 strikeouts against the Captains vaunted offense which ranked ninth nationally in scoring coming into Tuesday's contest.
The CNU offense would not be held down, though, as the Yellow Jackets went to the bullpen in the seventh inning. Trailing 2-0 after six,
John Anderson led off the seventh with a walk and was relieved by pinch runner
J.T. Bellotti. After
Nick DiNapoli singled to move Bellotti up to third base, senior right fielder
Joseph Cutchins delivered a sacrifice fly to get the Captains on the board.
Ryan Grubbs then got on by beating out a groundball to third base for an infield hit and
Austin Henry loaded the bases with a walk to bring up
Jordan Mason.
Mason, who leads the team in RBI this season from the leadoff spot, stepped in and delivered a 2-run single to left field to put the Captains ahead. He flared an 0-2 pitch into left chasing DiNapoli and Grubbs to the plate. After taking the lead against reliever Matt Nickles, Randolph-Macon called on Tyler Dunn from the bullpen, but
Conner Clark tacked on another run with an RBI single into left field.
With a 4-2 lead headed into the final two innings,
Brian Owens stayed on for a clean eighth inning after picking up the final out of the seventh and made way for junior closer
Andrew Suppa in the ninth. Owens struck out one and induced a double-play in 1.1 innings of work to pick up his first win of the season before Suppa took the ball in the ninth. After three perfect appearances to start his career on the mound, Suppa ran into trouble against the 4th-ranked Yellow Jackets when the first two batters reached on a walk and a single. After a sacrifice bunt put the game-tying run in scoring position, Suppa got a fly ball and a soft groundball back to the mound to close out his first career save.
The Captains got another strong start from sophomore
Josh Husby, who picked up a no decision after six innings of work. Husby struck out six with a walk after giving up two runs on three hits against the Macon offense. He led a staff that picked up eight strikeouts and allowed just five hits in the game.
Christopher Newport is currently scheduled to take on Gallaudet next on Sunday, March 3 at 1:00 pm. Stay tuned to CNUsports.com for updates to the schedule.
Highlights:
