NEWPORT NEWS, Va. -- Closing out the regular season home schedule, the CNU baseball team suffered a 5-0 setback to Mary Washington in Coast-To-Coast Athletic Conference action on Saturday. The Captains celebrated the careers of eleven seniors prior to the game and all but one, due to injury, saw action against the Eagles on Senior Day.

The Captains bullpen had a sensational performance against the potent Eagles lineup, holding Mary Washington to just one hit over the final four innings. Rookie Jackson Chappell tossed two no-hit innings in the sixth and seventh before Peter Hoenig worked around a one-out single to close out a clean eighth and Eli Novario blanked the Eagles with a perfect ninth inning. 

Despite the hard work by the bullpen, the Captains fell behind, 5-0, as Mary Washington scored one in the first and two runs in the second and fifth innings. The CNU bats fell silent against Eagles starter Matthew Boyd, collecting just one hit over five shutout frames. 

Aaron Maxie delivered a hard-hit single into center field to lead off the second inningbut the runner wound up stranded. In the eighth inning, CNU recorded two more singles as Doc Daniels ripped a single inside the bag at third base and Kevin Mackmin added a two-out single through the right side. CNU loaded the bases against the Eagles in the eighth when Nick Norton walked in his first career at-bat for the Captains. Unfortunately, Mary Washington reliever Connor Hassan came on and ended the threat and finished out the win for the save. 

The Eagles took advantage of two-out hitting, scoring all five runs in the game with two outs. In the first, an unearned run came around on an RBI double by Ty Lowe; the visitors added two runs on three hits in the second, including a two-out two-run triple by Ryan Schwarz, and; finally, in the fifth, the Captains' starting pitcher, Cooper Newell, got the first two outs, but a single by Lowe and a two-out, two-run home run by Bobby Ayscue homered to right field. 

One of the top highlights of the afternoon came in the top of the eighth when Eric Powell sent a lazy liner into right center field. Senior Gavin Spencer, into the game in the seventh, charged in and made an outstanding sliding catch for the out to hold a runner at first base. Hoenig then induced a pop-up and a groundball to shortstop to end the inning. 

Getting the start in right field, fifth-year senior Scott Crosson appeared in his 169th career game and moved past Jordan Mason (2016-19) for fourth on the all-time list. He also has started 161 career games to rank fifth most all-time at CNU. 

CNU has four games remaining on the regular season schedule with all four being played away from home. The Captains will travel to North Carolina Wesleyan on Tuesday, April 22 at 2:00 p.m. to take on the Battling Bishops. CNU will also bus to Eastern Mennonite University on Wednesday, April 23 at 4:00 p.m.