FREDERICKSBURG, Va. -- In both the ABCA Coaches Poll and the D3baseball.com/NCBWA National Rankings, the Christopher Newport baseball team held its position at No. 2 in the nation this week after going 3-1 in conference play a week ago. This week, head coach
John Harvell has announced the Captains (27-4, 14-2) will make up a rained out game against Southern Virginia at 11:00 am on Wednesday.
The game against the Knights (13-11, 4-8) will be played on a neutral field in Fredericksburg, Va. as Southern Virginia will also play host Mary Washington for a CAC contest on Wednesday afternoon.
CNU is coming off a loss for just the fourth time this season after dropping an 18-13 decision in the finale of a three-game series at Penn State Harrisburg. The Captains won the series with convincing 18-6 and 13-4 wins on the first day, marking the fourth time this season that CNU has scored 40 runs or more in a conference series.
Southern Virginia hasn't played since the Captains traveled to Buena Vista, Va. for a makeup game last Thursday in advance of the Penn State Harrisburg series. The Knights hung with the formidable Captains lineup in that matchup, as CNU pulled out an 8-7 win on the road. It was the fourth loss in the last five games for SVU, who opened the season with a hot 8-2 start.
Christopher Newport leads the nation in scoring with 12.4 runs per game and, with 383 runs scored, have already scored more runs in a single season than all but three seasons prior to 2019. The 46 home runs blasted rank fifth all-time at CNU and the 340 RBI are fourth most in program lore. The current percentages are also shattering the previous marks for on-base percentage and slugging percentage as CNU boasts a record .465 OBP, .551 slugging, while also posting the second-best team average at .344.
On an individual level, senior
Ryan Grubbs paces the team with a .461 average and .653 on-base percentage, which leads the nation. He has nine extra-base hits including four home runs while driving in 28 and scoring 34 times. He shares catching and starting DH duties with sophomore
Eric O'Brien, who is hitting .430 with 13 extra-base hits and 26 RBI to help lead the powerful CNU offense.
The pitching staff is led by
Josh Husby (7-1, 3.17 ERA), who has started nine games this season. The sophomore has struck out 58 in 54.0 innings of work while holding opponents to a .199 batting average against. Out of the pen,
Tyler Jumper (5-0, 0.64 ERA) and
Brian Owens (1-0, 0.78 ERA) lead the way with 60 strikeouts combined over their 51 innings of work.
Southern Virginia has been led offensively by Bridger Taylor and Canon Anderson with 60 RBI combined. Taylor is hitting .386 and Anderson adds a .383 mark; both have delivered four home runs this season. Against the Captains last week, Anderson was 3-for-5 with 3 RBI and 2 runs scored as Southern Virginia attempted to come from behind against the Captains.
Following Wednesday's mid-week makeup game, the Captains will host York College of Pennsylvania in the final CAC series of the season. With percentage points separating the Captains and 10th-ranked Salisbury University in the conference standings, every game has postseason implications for the CAC Tournament. The Sea Gulls currently hold a slight edge over the Captains heading into the final week of regular season action.
