NEWPORT NEWS, Va. -- Christopher Newport reached the 20-win plateau for the sixth consecutive full season on Wednesday afternoon after disposing of Southern Virginia University (7-15) in a 5-2 final at Captains Park. Playing in the first of four games this week, the Captains improved to 20-8 overall behind another strong overall pitching performance.
Led by junior starter
Connor Pennell (3-0), the Captains' pitching staff struck out 12 batters and walked just a pair. Pennell had seven of the punchouts over six innings of work.
Kyle Lewis struck out five in two frames and
Daniel Elliott earned his sixth save of the season with a clean ninth inning.
The Captains scored twice in the bottom of the first and added three more in the bottom of the fifth inning for the final tally. Headlining both run-scoring innings for the Captains was senior
Conner Clark, who continues to charge up the all-time charts at Christopher Newport. With a pair of hits on Wednesday, Clark passed All-American Billy Steel for third all-time at Christopher Newport with 224 career hits. He trails only Hall of Famer Matt Turner (225) and all-time leader Jordan Mason (231) in CNU history.
Clark opened the game with a lead-off double into left field and then quickly stole third. After back-to-back walks by
Scott Crosson and
Justin Bowers,
Daniel Elliott stepped in with the bases loaded. Elliott put a charge into a 3-2 pitch, but it stayed in the yard for a sacrifice fly deep to left. The fly ball also moved Crosson to third base, putting him in position to score on the second sac fly of the inning two batters later when
Kevin Mackmin flied out to left.
With a 2-0 lead, Pennell worked quickly through the second, striking out a pair in a perfect 1-2-3 inning. He gave up a lead-off single in the third before retiring nine of the next ten to get through five frames.
In the bottom of the fifth, Clark led off with his second hit with an infield single. He stole second and moved up to third on a groundball out. The speedy senior then sprinted home to score on a wild pitch with the eventual game-winning run. Bowers walked for the third time and Elliott reached on a walk as well. After moving up on the aforementioned wild pitch,
Alec Reilly delivered a hard-hit single through the right side. The base hit scored two and gave the Captains a 5-0 lead.
Southern Virginia struck twice in the top of the sixth with back-to-back doubles to start the inning. After the early trouble, Pennell settled and recorded his seventh strikeout before ending the inning with a foul out and a groundball to first.
That would be it for the visitors against the Captains' pitching staff, as Lewis dominated his two innings and Elliott slammed the door. Lewis struck out the first three batters he faced and then added two more whiffs in the second frame. In the ninth, Elliott notched his sixth save of the season after allowing an infield single to start. He did not throw a single ball out of the strikezone, getting an 0-2 foul pop-up to first base, a first-pitch groundball to shortstop, and an 0-1 deep foul fly to right field. Elliott's dominant effort in the bullpen this season continues as he lowered his team-leading ERA to 0.87 over 31.0 innings of work.
Clark, Reilly, and
Grant Hartman each finished with two hits in the game. Reilly reached base in four of his five plate appearances while Bowers finished with three walks at the plate.
Christopher Newport will return to action on Thursday, April 14 as they travel to Bridgewater College for a 4:00 pm first pitch against the Eagles.
