MONTCLAIR, N.J. -- Trailing by one and running out of outs, the Christopher Newport baseball team came from behind in its final at-bat on Sunday afternoon courtesy of a three-run home run off the bat of sophomore Cameron Slough. The Captains (13-10) downed Lesley University (4-8) on a neutral field when Slough blasted his team-leading third round-tripper of the season. 

For the third straight day, the Captains found themselves deadlocked in a pitchers' duel and looking for offense to steal a win late in the game. Chase Hustead allowed just one run over seven strong innings pitched for the Captains while striking out four. Lesley snuck ahead, 2-1, with a single run in the top of the eighth, but CNU willed themselves to victory in the bottom half. 

Leading off the eighth, sophomore Aaron Maxie was hit by a pitch to get the lead off man on. Looking to manufacture the game-tying run, Justin Liakos laid down a sacrifice bunt to move up Maxie. Ayden Stuffel followed with a walk and Lesley called on a reliever to face Slough. After his warm-up pitches, the Captains' sophomore backstop stepped in and watched the first offering miss high and outside. Then, on the second pitch of the at-bat, the Lynx came over the plate and Slough didn't miss, turning on and hammering a three-run shot over the wall in left field. 

The thrilling slam put the Captains ahead, 4-2, needing just three outs to seal the victory in the top of the ninth. Sophomore Eli Novario, who had come in to close out the eighth, struck out four of the six batters he faced, including two in the ninth, and slammed the door on Lesley. He needed just nine pitches to get through the final inning, including a pair of three-pitch strikeouts. 

Prior to the late-game theatrics, the Captains took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning when Maxie walked to lead off the inning. He raced all the way around the bases on a Liakos triple to score the game's first run. Lesley answered in the next half inning with a single run with an RBI single, but Hustead avoided further damage with a strikeout to end the inning. 

The junior starter worked around trouble throughout the outing but stranded eight baserunners over seven innings of work. Novario snagged his first career win with a career-high four strikeouts in 1.2 innings pitched. Scott Crosson had a multi-hit showing with a 2-for-3 effort at the plate while reaching base in three of his four plate appearances.

Christopher Newport will host a pair of games at Captains Park on Tuesday and Wednesday starting with a matchup against Southern Virginia University. CNU will throw out the first pitch at 3:00 p.m.