SALISBURY, Md. -- Taking on the nationally-ranked Salisbury University Sea Gulls, the Christopher Newport baseball team will head to the Eastern Shore of Maryland on Sunday for a 2:00 p.m. first pitch in Coast-To-Coast Athletic Conference action. The game, originally scheduled for Saturday afternoon, was rescheduled due to rain in the forecast.
Christopher Newport, coming off a 17-0 win at Eastern Mennonite, enters the contest with a 19-16 overall record and 0-3 mark in C2C action. The ninth-ranked Sea Gulls have won three in a row and are 28-7 overall this season with a 2-0 mark against conference competition.
The two teams had an exciting conference battle at Captains Park earlier this season in a game that saw Salisbury outlast CNU, 14-11, by scoring five runs in the top of the ninth in a back-and-forth matchup. CNU trails the all-time series against Salisbury, 34-56, and have dropped seven straight at Sea Gulls Stadium.
CNU has a winning record in road games this season, going 5-3 as the visitors including winning two of the last three. Entering the contest,
Jake Benedict is hitting a league-best .423 while
Aaron Maxie is also hitting over .400 for the season with a .405 mark. Benedict currently boasts the sixth-highest single season average in program history while Maxie is just outside the top-ten, but has reached base at a .533 clip to rank third highest in CNU lore.
Offensively, the Captains are hitting .304 as a group while averaging 7.5 runs per game. Seniors
Doc Daniels (.368) and
Justin Liakos (.303), juniors
Ayden Stuffel (.330) and
Josh Reinhold (.308), and sophomore
Cameron Slough (.303) are each hitting over .300 for the year. Maxie leads the squad with 36 RBI while Slough has blasted a team-high five home runs and ranks second on the team with 28 RBI.
Salisbury is one of the top fielding teams in the country, ranking 16th nationally with a 0.972 fielding percentage while the pitching staff has limited runs scored with a 3.91 team ERA that ranks 22nd in Division III. Tyler Villa has a team-best 3.13 ERA to lead the staff, but the offense is equally as dangerous. The Sea Gulls are led by Danny Sheeler with 49 runs scored and Dylan Winebrenner with 95 total bases. Winebrenner is hitting .385 in 35 games played while Sheeler is hitting .363. Additionally, Noah Burroughs is hitting .377 with 22 extra-base hits including six home runs and 42 RBI.
Following the conference matchup on Sunday, the Captains will close out the regular season on Monday, April 28 at Hampden-Sydney College. Game time at the Tigers is scheduled for 4:00 p.m.
