MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. -- Leading another dominant pitching performance from the Christopher Newport staff, rookie Dylan Weber (1-0) picked up his first career victory on Wednesday afternoon as the Captains wrapped up a 3-0 trip to Myrtle Beach with an 11-3 victory over Johnson & Wales. Weber and three relievers combined for 14 punchouts while allowing just three unearned runs in the game. 

Christopher Newport improved to 8-4 on the season with the victory and capped their spring break trip to the Palmetto State outscoring their three opponents by a final tally of 47-8. Johnson & Wales, who will travel to Captains Park for a series of games next weekend, falls to 1-1. 

Weber was locked in from the first inning on and pieced together a stellar run of five straight strikeouts between the first and second inning. He is the first freshman since Josh Husby sat down five straight against St. Mary's (Md.) in 2018 to record five straight strikeouts. The first time through the lineup, the Captains' rookie allowed just two singles and one walk while striking out five. 

The Captains offense would then get to work in the third when Brayden Hodges led off with a single and moved up to second on a sacrifice bunt by Conner Clark. The bases were loaded with back-to-back free passes as Jonathan Fisher was drilled and Eric O'Brien worked a one-out walk. Hodges would score the first run on a wild pitch before Trey Hicks stepped in and delivered a two-run single for the Captains to make it 3-0. 

The Wildcats scored their lone run off Weber in the top of the 4th inning with an RBI single but the CNU freshman left two stranded with a pair of infield pop-ups. He would punctuate his five-inning outing with his seventh and final strikeout to end the fifth. 

Christopher Newport took a 6-1 lead after four innings with three more in the bottom of the fourth. A two-out rally was mounted as Clark and Fisher each singled, including an RBI base hit from the freshman shortstop. Two more runs would come in for Christopher Newport on an errant throw by the first baseman. 

The score remained the same until the bottom of the 6th when Hicks continued to add to his remarkable performance this week. After hitting for the cycle on Tuesday, the senior outfielder blasted his second solo home run in as many days with a one-out blast in the sixth. He now has a team-leading nine extra-base hits on the season. 

Gray Goodrich and Jack Rosenberg each tossed scoreless innings out of the bullpen with three strikeouts between them. Johnson & Wales scored two unearned runs against Tyler Jumper in the eighth inning, but the Captains lead was too much to overcome. The Captains tacked on an insurance run in the seventh and three more in the eighth for the final score of 11-3. Senior Brian Owens wrapped up the pitching performance with two strikeouts in the ninth, shutting out the Wildcats in just four batters faced.

Four multi-hit performances highlighted the offensive production on Wednesday with O'Brien and Hicks each finishing the day 3-for-5. Hicks added 3 RBI and a run scored while O'Brien delivered two runners to the plate and scored once as well. Clark was 2-for-4 with a walk, 2 RBI and a run scored and Hodges added a 2-for-4, 2 runs scored effort. After two home runs in the previous two days of work, Johnson & Wales stayed away from Evan Baer who was 0-for-1 with four walks in the game. 

Christopher Newport will return to action on Sunday, March 8 at Gallaudet University. First pitch against the Bison is scheduled for 1:00 pm.