NEWPORT NEWS, Va. -- Freshman
Aidan Henning tossed five strong innings of relief and rookie
Cameron Wallace smashed a late home run as part of a 6-0 run by the Captains, but Hampden-Sydney established too large a lead to overcome in Tuesday afternoon's non-conference tilt and handed Christopher Newport a 15-7 loss at Captains Park.
Playing in their third straight home game during an eight-game homestand, the Captains fell behind 11-0 after the first 1.5 frames and could not rally for enough against the Tigers (2-2). Christopher Newport fell to 2-3 overall this season with the setback.
Henning came on in the fifth inning facing a 14-1 deficit and put together a phenomenal relief effort. With six games in the next nine days, the pitching staff needed a Herculean effort to help save some arms for the coming schedule. Henning took the ball in the fifth and proceeded to allow just four hits, all singles, and struck out four. Two of the hits allowed never left the infield and the lone run he allowed was unearned.
In the fifth inning, Henning relieved
Tucker Keener and retired two of the first three batters he faced. An error allowed a runner to advance to second and Jay Beavers singled in the only run allowed by Henning. From there, he retired nine of the next 11 batters he faced an induced a double-play on one of the two baserunners allowed. The Captains first-year southpaw struck out the side in the sixth and added another K in the top of the ninth. In all, his line was 5.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 4 SO.
On the offensive side of the ball, the Captains got a nice showing from the rookie reserves as five of CNU's seven RBI were produced by newcomers. With Henning dealing on the mound, the offense scored six unanswered runs in the final five innings including a four-run eighth to help close the gap. In the eighth, patience at the plate led to four runs on one hit. Rookie
Josh Stevens,
Cameron Wallace, and
John Scherr walked the bases loaded for fellow freshman
Nathan Poretz. The latter also walked to score a run before
Brayden Hodges stepped in and delivered a two-run single into left field. With the bases loaded again two batters later, it was rookie
Samuel Essex that delivered a deep fly ball to center for a sacrifice fly to cap the scoring.
The final highlight of the day for Christopher Newport came in the bottom of the ninth when Wallace blasted a 1-0 pitch over the left field wall for his first career home run. The freshman smashed a two-out dinger for to round out the final score of 15-7. He led the offense by going 2-for-2 with a walk and the home run while scoring twice.
Trey Hicks also added a 2-for-3 effort with an RBI single in the fifth inning and sophomore
Michael Martorano was 1-for-2 with an RBI knock as well.
Matt Spagnolo led the Tigers offense going 2-for-2 with two walks and 5 RBI. Andrew Kasiski was also perfect at the plate going 4-for-4 with 2 RBI and 2 runs scored.
The Captains will play again on Wednesday, February 19 against Eastern Mennonite University. First pitch against the Royals is scheduled for 2:00 pm.
