Live Video // Live Stats
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - The regular season comes to a close Saturday for the Christopher Newport University softball squad. The Captains, ranked third in the country again this week, will travel to Salisbury, Md., to take on the eighth-ranked Sea Gulls of Salisbury University. The doubleheader is now set to begin at 1:30 p.m. at Margie Knight Stadium on the SU campus.
Keith Parr's Captains have a record of 32-4, while Salisbury is currently 32-3-1.
Christopher Newport is coming off a sweep over Mary Washington last Saturday at Captains Park on Senior Day. CNU won the opener in five innings, 9-1, and then held off the Eagles in the nightcap, 2-0. Salisbury traveled to Collegeville, Pa., last Friday and swept Ursinus by scores of 5-0 and 8-0. The Gulls are riding an 11-game winning streak heading into Saturday's action.
The Captains have been led at the plate this season by fifth-year senior third baseman
Brooke Greaver and sophomore centerfielder
Candace Slaw. Greaver is currently tied for third in the country in runs batted in with 54, and is tied for 13th in home runs with 12. Greaver also has a slugging percentage of .885, which is 17th in all of Division III. Slaw, meanwhile, is third in the nation in both batting average (.554) and runs scored (55), and is also 33rd in slugging percentage at .826. CNU as a team is fifth in slugging percentage at .580, and seventh in home runs with a total of 42. The Captains rank 22nd presently in team batting average (.362).
In the pitching circle, senior
Jamie Martin is currently tied for 20th in strikeouts with 135, and senior
Kate Alger is tied for 24th in victories with 15. Christopher Newport pitching is tenth in the nation in earned run average at 1.59, and the Captains pitchers are fourth in strikeout-to-walk ratio with 265 K's and just 51 bases on balls.
CNU and Salisbury have played 103 games in the all-time series, which dates back to 1989. The Captains hold a 53-48 advantage, and there have been two ties. Last season, the teams met four times and the Captains won all four battles, two at Captains Park on May 4th in a regular-season doubleheader, and then on back-to-back days in the Coast-To-Coast Athletic Conference Tournament on May 10th and 11th. Three of the four games were decided by just one run.
Saturday's games will be streamed live by Salisbury, and you can watch the action by clicking the link at the top of this story. Live stats will also be available with the link provided above. Following Saturday's doubleheader, Christopher Newport will begin preparing for the Coast-To-Coast Tournament, which will be held on May 9th with the site and game times to be determined.
