NEWPORT NEWS, Va. -- In the final regular season poll of the season, the Christopher Newport Captains were picked number one by the voters at D3baseball.com as they prepare to face Misericordia University in NCAA Regional play this weekend.

CNU jumped up to the top spot after being ranked third last week and second in the previous five weeks. The Captains spent one week at number one during the regular season and have been in the top five in 11 of 12 regular season polls this season. They earned 16 first-place votes and were the lone team over 600 points in the rankings.

The previous top-ranked team in the nation, Concordia-Chicago, slipped to number two in the nation, and the rest of the top five in order are Southern Maine, Trinity (Texas), and Washington University (Mo.). 

The Captains enter postseason play with a 35-7 record and champions of the Capital Athletic Conference, making the program's tenth NCAA Tournament appearance. The team boasted ten All-Conference honorees this season including six first team picks.

As a team, the Captains feature the nation's leading offense with 12.1 runs scored per game while also ranking first in home runs (72), on-base percentage (.463), walks (298), and slugging percentage (.565). Individually, three different Captains are leading statistical categories nationally, as Nicholas Baham has blasted a national high 19 home runs, Seth Woodard has walked 55 times, and Ryan Grubbs has reached base at a .622 clip. Conner Clark also ranks second in runs scored, with 61, and fifth in stolen bases. 

Looking ahead, Christopher Newport will face Misericordia University in a best-of-five NCAA Regional series this weekend with a berth to the Super Regional round on the line. The Captains will host the Cougars at Noon on Friday, May 17 to start the action. 
 

2019 D3baseball.com/NCBWA Top 25, week 12

Through the end of the regular season  (May12, 2019)

#	School (1st votes)	Rec	Pts	Prev.
1	Christopher Newport (16)	35-7	606	3
2	Concordia-Chicago (6)	38-7	581	1
3	Southern Maine	34-7	550	2
4	Trinity (Texas)	34-10	546	4
5	Washington U. (3)	31-5-1	534	5
6	Chapman	33-9	450	9
7	Babson	33-7	434	6
8	TCNJ	31-9	395	11
9	Adrian	35-7	378	10
10	Salisbury	34-8-1	362	8
11	Rowan	30-11	358	7
12	UW-Whitewater	34-10	348	14
13	Denison	38-7	325	16
14	LaGrange	30-9	276	17
15	Birmingham-Southern	34-11	241	20
16	Texas Lutheran	31-12	216	13
17	Coe	34-5	210	12
18	Webster	32-10	167	23
19	Cortland	31-11-1	154	18
20	Wooster	26-12	141	15
21	Ithaca	31-7	136	25
22	Johns Hopkins	30-11	129	22
23	Mass-Boston	30-11	106	rv
24	Wheaton (Mass.)	27-10	103	21
25	Concordia (Texas)	34-10	91	24

Dropped out: No. 19 Randolph-Macon.

Others receiving votes: Randolph-Macon 58, Aurora 49, Methodist 25, Trinity (Conn.) 24, Heidelberg 20, Tufts 14, Piedmont 13, La Roche 10, Shenandoah 9, Oswego 9, Hope 9, Baldwin Wallace 8, North Central (Ill.) 7, Swarthmore 6, Case Western Reserve 5, Farmingdale State 4, UW-La Crosse 4, Washington & Jefferson 4, Saint John's (Minn.) 3, Cal Lutheran 2, Penn State-Harrisburg 2, Hendrix 1, Kean 1, Spalding 1.

The D3baseball.com Top 25 is voted on by a panel of 25 Sports Information Directors and media members from across the country, and is published weekly. Full members of NCAA Division III are eligible.