MONTCLAIR, N.J. -- The Christopher Newport baseball team captured a 4-0 victory over Swarthmore College (7-10) on Friday evening after blanking the Garnet for the first shutout of the season for Captains pitching. Junior Cooper Newell (3-1) combined with sophomore reliever Eli Novario for the shutout with just six hits allowed and eight strikeouts. 

The Captains improved to 12-9 on the season with the win after a pitchers' duel dominated the action throughout the night. Newell got out to a quick start, striking out the first batter he faced and allowing just an infield single in the first two innings. He stranded three baserunners over the first three frames to keep Swarthmore off the board. 

In the bottom of the fourth, Newell opened with another punchout before the Garnet got a runner on with an infield single. The next play was another infield single, but was accompanied with a head's up defensive play that could have been a momentum shifting moment in the game. As the Swarthmore hitter grounded toward shortstop with a slow roller off the end of the bat, CNU third baseman Sam Benedict ranged over to try and make a play on the ball. The runner from first saw that third base had been vacated and tried to make an aggressive play, going from first to third on the infield single, but Newell wisely raced to the bag and snared a throw from Benedict to retire the runner. 

Fired up from the big play, Newell struck out the next batter he faced and sent the Garnet back to the field empty for a fourth consecutive inning. He needed to work around just two more baserunners to complete his outing unscathed, and punctuated his outing with an emphatic finish by striking out his final two batters faced. By the end of his start, Newell tossed 7.0 scoreless innings with seven strikeouts and two walks with four singles scattered across the game. Three of the four hits were infield base hits as he kept the Garnet guessing throughout the game. 

The Captains offense was equally stymied by the Swarthmore pitching until the Garnet went to the bullpen in the top of the seventh. Taking advantage of some control issues on the mound, the Captains reached on a hit by pitch and three straight walks from Sam Benedict, Josh Reinhold and Aaron Maxie. Jake Benedict, who was drilled to lead off the inning, scored the go-ahead run for what would ultimately prove to be all the Captains' needed. 

CNU then scored two more when Justin Liakos drove in a pair with a single through the left side, plating Benedict and Reinhold. The two-run base hit gave Newell some added cushion heading into his final inning of work. Then, in the top of the eighth, the Captains secured another insurance run when Jake Benedict led off with a single up the middle. He moved up on a wild pitch and advanced to third on a groundball by his brother. Reinhold then hit a fly ball to right deep enough to score the run and Benedict crossed the plate again. It marked the ninth game this season that Jake Benedict has scored multiple runs in a game as he now has 29 through the first 21 games of the year. 

Coming into the game with a 4-0 lead, Eli Novario faced just seven batters in two innings of work. The defense worked behind him as a lead-off double in the eighth was snuffed out at third with a brilliant relay from Liakos to Reinhold to Benedict as Swarthmore tried to turn the extra-base hit into a triple. He then induced back-to-back fly ball outs to finish the eighth. In the bottom of the ninth, it was a groundball to third, flyball to center, and a three-pitch strikeout to end the game for Novario. 

The sophomore right-hander has appeared in a team-high 11 games this season and boasts a 2.77 ERA with 12 strikeouts in 13.0 innings pitched. On Friday, he went 2.0 scoreless with two hits and one K. 

Ayden Stuffel was 3-for-4 in the game and Lincoln Lubsen reached three times via walks. Reinhold and Liakos added two-hit games for the Captains as CNU finished with nine hits in the game. 

Christopher Newport will return to action on Saturday, March 22 against the host Red Hawks of Montclair State University. First pitch is set for 2:00 p.m.