NEWPORT NEWS, Va. -- The 7th-ranked Christopher Newport baseball team remained undefeated with another stellar performance on Saturday, defeating Marietta College (0-2) by a final score of 11-5 in non-conference action. The Captains bullpen tossed four perfect innings of relief to close out the win by Teddy Herbert (2-0) while the offense smacked three home runs and scored in double figures for the fifth time in seven games this year. 

Playing Marietta in the second game of a split doubleheader, the Captains improved to 7-0 while the Pioneers dropped both games, including the opener to No. 4 Randolph-Macon College. 

The Captains pitching staff sandwiched a five-run fifth inning with four zeroes on either side while holding down the Marietta offense throughout the contest. Herbert gave up just a pair of singles in the first four innings while notching a pair of strikeouts. He retired eight straight batters before heading into the fifth inning already staked to a 7-0 lead. 

The offense jumped on Marietta quickly, scoring three runs in the bottom of the first and four more in the bottom of the third. Jordan Mason kicked things off with an 0-2 double down the left field line and Conner Clark plated him with a flared single over the third baseman's head. Seth Woodard stepped in and delivered a sacrifice fly to make it 2-0 and bring up senior designated hitter John Anderson. The left-handed DH worked himself into a hitter's count against Marietta's rookie starter, Justin Aviles (0-1) before hitting a towering solo home run over the wall in the right field corner. The blast was Anderson's first career round-tripper and the first home run hit at home by a CNU player this season. 

After Aviles got through the second unscathed, the top of the order came up again and promptly added to the lead. Clark walked and stole second before Woodard singled through the left side to move the runner up and Anderson flied out to deep right center for his second RBI on the sacrifice fly. The lineup kept moving as senior Nicholas Baham singled into center field to plate Woodard and bring up senior shortstop Nick DiNapoli. On a 1-0 pitch, DiNapoli smashed a no-doubter into the netting over the left field wall for his first home run of the season. The two-run shot made the score 7-0 in favor of the Captains. 

Herbert ran into some trouble in the fifth as rookie Logan Vietmeier led off with a solo home run to kick-start a five-run inning. Herbert struck out Seamus Kenneally but the next four batters reached on a walk, double, single, and hit-by-pitch. The Captains remained faithful to their junior right-hander with a 7-3 lead, and Herbert induced a sacrifice fly and a strikeout to end the inning with five runs scored on three hits in the inning. 

He gave way to the bullpen, which was lights out for CNU on Saturday afternoon. First up, junior Brian Owens stepped in and struck out Vietmeier before getting a weak groundball and lazy fly ball for a clean sixth inning. He stayed on and retired the side in order in the seventh to close out two perfect innings of relief. Then, Tyler Jumper stepped in and worked quickly through the eighth on just 10 pitches. He got a popup for the first out and then strick out back-to-back batters. Rounding out the exceptional relief appearance for CNU was senior Austin Slough, who capped the four perfect innings with a 1-2-3 ninth to secure the win for the Captains. Slough struck out one and finished the win with a groundball to second base. 

The offense tacked on more runs in support of their strong pitching performance with two in the fifth and one run in each the sixth and seventh innings. CNU took advantage of a pair of errors in the fifth and scored on an RBI walk by Mason and an infield single by Clark. Trey Hicks then delivered an RBI single in the sixth and Mason opened the seventh with CNU's third home run of the game when he cleared the right center field fence for his second homer of the year. 

Five Captains finished with multi-hit games led by the top of the lineup. Mason and Clark each scored twice and drove in a pair. Baham scored three times and was 2-for-5 in the game while DiNapoli and Eric O'Brien also finished with two-hit efforts. 

Christopher Newport will return to action on Sunday, March 3 as they host Gallaudet University at 12:00 pm. The game time has been adjusted from an original 1:00 pm first pitch due to expected rain in the afternoon forecast. Live stats and video will be available at CNUsports.com.