CARY, N.C. -- Powered by another dominant pitching performance from fifth-year senior Dylan Weber and a timely offensive showing, the 15th-ranked Christopher Newport baseball team rebounded from its first loss in over three weeks with an impressive 10-0 shutout on the road at William Peace on Sunday afternoon. Weber struck out 12 and improved to 6-1 on the season while the Captains picked up win number 20 on the season against the Pacers. 

Weber took the mound for the 12th time this season and his trend of historic milestones continued as he tied the program record with his 51st career start. The left-hander from Sterling, Virginia threw six strong innings in his second start of the week and joined the top ten in all-time pitching appearances with his 57th outing. Recording the win, Weber passed Eben Brower and took over sole possession of third all-time on the career victories chart with 24. 

Additionally, he moved into the top-five in career inning spitched, passing Cliff Wester (1998-02) with 268.2 innings. Most impressively, he passed another milestone in career strikeouts, eclipsing 350 career punchouts to join Kenny Moreland (2005-08) and Mike Cosby (2002-05) as the only Captains to ever reach the total. 

In Sunday's start, Weber struck out the first batter he faced and, after two batters reached on an error and a single, the crafty veteran wiggled out of the mini-jam with back-to-back strikeouts. It kickstarted a run of five straight K's as he promptly struck out the side in the second. Then, with one out in the third inning, Weber caught fire again and struck out five in a row for the second time. In the bottom of the sixth, the southpaw allowed a two-out single but closed out his day with an inning-ending groundball out. 

Meanwhile, the CNU offense gave their ace plenty of support with seven runs in the first five innings. The first three came across in the top of the second when Ayden Stuffel led off with a single into center field and then advanced to second on a wild pitch. After Eric Wilson walked, Jacob Koenig sacrificed the runners over and reached on an error that would plate the first two runs of the game. Freshman Gus Croll then stepped in and singled to left before Scott Crosson delivered a sacrifice fly deep to left to wrap up the three-run inning. 

In the fourth, CNU tacked on one more when Crosson singled through the right side and then sprinted home on a Josh Reinhold single. Reinhold reached base with the base hit, extending his record-breaking on-base streak to 69 straight games. That mark ties for the fourth longest on-base streak in Division III history, matching Dom Listi from North Central between March 15, 2022 and April 28, 2023. 

Christopher Newport scored three more in the top of the fifth in support of Weber when Doc Daniels got things started with a one-out single up the middle. Wilson walked to put two runners on ahead of Koenig, who continued his productive day with a two-run double to left center field. The freshman then came into score himself after a wild pitch and a passed ball allowed him to race home two batters later. 

CNU turned to Danny Checkosky to pitch in the bottom of the seventh and Daniel Elliott in the eighth. Both worked around a baserunner for clean innings to close the door in the game after the Captains built a 10-run lead after eight frames. 

The bats added three runs on three hits in the top of the eighth. Cameron Slough singled into right field and Daniels added his second hit through the left side. Stuffel and Wilson were each drilled, driving in the first of three runs before Justin Liakos hammered a two-run single into left field in his second at-bat. 

CNU recorded 10 hits including a 2-for-2 showing by Slough and a 2-for-5 day by Daniels. Crosson reached base four times, going 1-for-2 with three walks while Zach Dzarnowski, Croll, and Wilson each added a pair of walks as well. 

The Captains stay out on the road for the next three, traveling to Eastern Mennonite on Tuesday,, April 16 at 3:00 p.m. before moving on to Pfeiffer on April 18 at 3:00 p.m. and North Carolina Wesleyan at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, April 24.