NEWPORT NEWS, Va. -- Senior right-hander
Teddy Herbert (1-0) put together a strong pitching performance to lead the 25th-ranked Christopher Newport baseball team past Eastern Mennonite on Wednesday afternoon, tossing six innings against the Royals in a shutout, 8-0.
Herbert retired the first seven batters before allowing a pair of runners on an error and a seeing-eye single. He got out of the jam with a nice throw by his catcher to catch a would-be basestealer to end the third inning. After two more errors in the fourth, Herbert picked up a key inning-ending strikeout and kept the Royals off the board again in the fifth and sixth innings. In his final inning of work, Herbert punctuated his outing with his third strikeout of the day.
In all, the senior starter went 6.0 shutout innings, scattering just three hits with three strikeouts and no walks issued. He did the lion's share of the work in a nine-inning shutout for the Captains pitching staff which then called on
Gray Goodrich,
Tyler Jumper, and
Brian Owens to each pitch an inning apiece. Goodrich struck out one and faced just four batters in the seventh; Jumper struck out a pair in a perfect eighth inning that took just 10 pitches; and Owens wrapped up the blanking with one strikeout in the ninth.
The pitching staff limited free passes on Wednesday, issuing just one walk against Eastern Mennonite. The four arms combined for just five hits allowed and struck out seven.
On the offensive side of the ball, the Captains scored two runs in each the first and second innings before tacking on four more in the middle third of the game. Junior
Conner Clark kicked things off with a hard-hit groundball through the right side of the infield and promptly stole second base. Rookie
Jonathan Fisher then drove in what would be the decisive run with a single through the right side and, following Clark's lead, ripped off second base as well. After a pair of ground outs,
Eric O'Brien delivered an RBI single into left field as the Captains took a 2-0 lead.
In the bottom of the second,
Andrew Suppa worked the first of three walks in the game for the senior third baseman and moved up to second on a single by
Brayden Hodges. Clark sacrificed the runners over and Fisher delivered his second RBI knock of the day with a two-run single up the middle. Suppa walked again to lead off the fourth and then stole second before racing home on a single by Clark into left field.
The Captains would tack on three more in the bottom of the sixth after loading the bases with nobody out against reliever Gage Riddick.
Ethan Weaver and
Evan Baer singled before a sacrifice bunt turned error saw Suppa reach put three runners on. With the infield drawn in, Hodges ripped a hard groundball past the third baseman to score two runs. Later in the inning,
Trey Hicks drove in a run on a fielder's choice to round out the scoring for the Captains in the game.
Three Christopher Newport players registered multi-hit performances led by Clark and Fisher with three hits apiece. Hodges was 2-for-3 with 2 RBI and a run scored while Fisher drove in three with a run scored.
The win came in the 800th career game in the Christopher Newport dugout for head coach
John Harvell. He improved to 534-263-3 all-time and has coached more head-to-head matchups than any coach in CNU Athletics history other than legendary Christopher Newport leader C.J. Woollum. Woollum, the only other coach in Christopher Newport athletics history to reach the 800-bout plateau, coached the men's basketball team in 723 games and the men's golf program in 150 matches for 873 career head-to-head results.
The Captains are scheduled to return to the field on Friday, February 21 at 2:00 pm against Susquehanna University but impending winter weather may force adjustments to the weekend schedule. Fans should follow @CNUathletics on social media and check cnusports.com for updates as they are made by the Department of Athletics.
