DEMOREST, Ga. -- Sophomore left-handed starter Jay Cassady struck out a career-high-tying 10 batters and blasted a solo home run in the first game of the season for Christopher Newport baseball, but a come-from-behind effort by the host Piedmont University Lions (1-1) soured the Captains opening day with a walk-off win, 6-5, in the bottom of the ninth. CNU took a 5-0 lead after three and a half before Piedmont scored six unanswered over the final six innings to capture the narrow victory. 

Cassady took the ball to start on the mound while also hitting in the three-hole for the Captains to start his second year. With two outs in the top of the first, Cassady terrorized the first pitch he saw in 2022 with a mammoth solo blast over the right field wall. His homer gave the Captains an early 1-0 lead before he would toe the rubber in the bottom half of the inning. 

The sophomore southpaw gave up a one-out single in the first before retiring eight straight with five strikeouts. In the bottom of the fourth, he ran into minor trouble with a lead-off triple and an RBI single, but the offense had staked their sophomore ace to a 5-0 lead. Cassady would eventually strike out the side in the fourth after the Lions tacked on another run courtesy of an error to run the score to 5-2. 

CNU had taken a 5-0 lead with four runs on two hits and two errors in the top half of that same inning. After two quick outs, the Captains took advantage of defensive miscues to put four runs across. Scott Crosson started the rally with a single and moved up to second on an error by the shortstop. Michael Martorano beat out the throw to second base on a fielder's choice to load the bases and Drew Caroline stepped in with a chance to give the Captains some breathing room. After falling behind in the count, 1-2, Caroline fouled off three straight tough pitches before blooping a well-placed looper over the first-baseman's head. The ball was dropped and two runners came around to score.

The inning continued on another fielder's choice to re-load the bases for leadoff batter Conner Clark. The fifth-year senior delivered with a hard hit single to chase home Caroline and Brayden Hodges for two more insurance runs. The base knock extended his hitting streak to 12 games dating back through the final 11 contests of 2021 and gave him 190 hits for his career. He is now one shy of John Corbin for ninth all-time at Christopher Newport and a mere ten raps away from becoming the seventh player in program history to eclipse 200 hits in his career. 

Cassady was lifted with two outs in the fifth after recording his 10th strikeout of the game. He matched his career high set last season against Mary Washington in the C2C Tournament. For the game, Cassady tossed 4.2 innings with just three hits allowed and two runs, one earned, in his season debut. 

Daniel Elliott came on to close out the fifth without any damage and worked quickly through the sixth as well. Elliott induced a pair of slow rollers and struck out a pair in his 1.1 perfect innings of relief. 

Piedmont started their comeback in the bottom of the seventh with back-to-back doubles to pull within two, 5-3. Then, in the eighth, a pair of Piedmont players hit back-to-back solo home runs to draw even with just one inning left to play. The Captains failed to get anything going in the top of the ninth before Piedmont worked the bases loaded in the bottom half. Jack Rosenberg (0-1) gave up a lead-off walk to the eventual game-winning run, saddling the junior reliever with the loss. Newcomer Kyle Lewis stepped in and recorded an out with a sacrifice bunt, but loaded the bases with a pair of intentional walks to set up a potential double play for the Captains. Lewis then worked ahead of pinch hitter Grant Olson, but his 0-2 offering bounced off of the batter in the dirt for a walk-off hit-by-pitch. 

Crosson led the offense with a 3-for-4 performance for the Captains, picking up half of CNU's six hits. Clark, Cassady, and newcomer Justin Bowers each earned one hit apiece and five different CNU players scored in the game. On the other side, the six CNU pitchers combined for 18 strikeouts including three from David Gingras and two by Danny Checkosky. 

Christopher Newport will have little time to shake off the loss as they return to Loudermilk Field on Saturday morning to take on Cal Lutheran at 10:00 am. Live stats and video will be available online.