BUENA VISTA, Va. -- Head coach
John Harvell announced the addition of a mid-week game to the schedule as the second-ranked Christopher Newport baseball team will travel to face Southern Virginia University on Thursday afternoon at 3:30 pm. Following the Capital Athletic Conference makeup game, CNU will then travel to Middletown, Pa. to take on Penn State Harrisburg for a three-game set this weekend. A doubleheader against the Lions will begin at Noon on Saturday with the third game starting at 1:00 pm on Sunday.
The Knights are making up a game against Penn State Harrisburg on Wednesday, will play CNU on Thursday, and then will take on Frostburg State in a three-game series Friday and Saturday. Live stats will be available for the action.
The first-place Captains carry a 24-3, 11-1 record into Thursday's opener while the host Knights are 13-9, 4-6 before Wednesday's matchup against Penn State Harrisburg. The Lions are 22-8-1, 9-5 ahead of that showdown as well and will host the Captains in either third or fourth in the league standings.
All nine CNU starters are hitting .311 or better this season, including three regulars batting over .400 for the year. Seniors
Joseph Cutchins (.438),
Ryan Grubbs (.429), and sophomore
Eric O'Brien (.414) lead the grouping in average while seniors
Nicholas Baham,
Seth Woodard, and junior
Trey Hicks lead the team in home runs with 23 combined. In addition to ranking second on the team in RBI with 37, Woodard was named to the D3baseball.com National Team of the Week earlier this week and is threatening the program record for walks in a season with 31 free passes thus far. He is just outside the top ten in base on balls, and only seven walks shy of the record.
Also making history last week was senior outfielder
Jordan Mason, who became just the sixth player in program history to reach 200 career hits. He is the all-time leader in at-bats and among the top-ten in CNU history in stolen bases.
While the offensive numbers are staggering, the CNU pitching has also been lights out as the Captains rank in the top-20 nationally in team ERA (3.11) while ranking fourth in WHIP (1.10) and 12th in strikeout to walk ratio (3.13). Leading the charge is sophomore
Josh Husby (6-1) with a 2.66 ERA and 55 strikeouts in 47.1 innings pitched. Out of the pen,
Tyler Jumper (5-0) has a 0.72 ERA in 14 appearances, striking out 28 in 25.0 IP. He leads a bullpen that has been formidable all season long, combining for an 8-0 record and 2.17 ERA in an average of 4.0 IP per game.
The Captains will take on a Southern Virginia squad that is led by sophomore Bridger Taylor, hitting .405 with a team-high 29 RBI and four home runs. Fellow sophomore Canon Anderson is hitting .376 with 25 RBI and junior Ryan Morin is also hitting .369 with 22 RBI. On the mound, the Knights have a 6.03 ERA in 179 innings pitched. Jonny Soto (2-1) leads the team in innings with 33.1 and has a 5.13 ERA heading into Saturday's action.
Penn State Harrisburg is led by reigning CAC Player of the Week Bret Williams, who hit a game-winning grand slam against Keystone last week. He is hitting .412 with a team-high 8 HR while driving in 39 runs and scoring 45 times. Also leading the attack is the league's leading run producer Travis Van Houten with 52 RBI already this season. Van Houten has 22 extra-base hits and is hitting .418 for the Lions.
Following this weekend's league action, CNU will return home to host York College of Pennsylvania for the final home regular season series of the year next weekend.
