NEWPORT NEWS, Va. -- In the first regular season rankings by D3baseball.com and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) released on Tuesday, the Christopher Newport Captains (5-1) moved into the poll and are ranked No. 22 in the nationa. Freshly minted a top-25 team, CNU will take on Bridgewater College (7-0) at Captains Park on Wednesday afternoon at 2:00 p.m.
The national billing is the first for the Captains since March 9, 2025, week 2 of last season, when CNU checked in at No. 18 in the rankings. It's the fifth season in a row that CNU has been ranked in the D3baseball.com Top 25 poll.
On Wednesday, Christopher Newport will host the fourth home game of the year after starting the year 3-0 at Captains Park. Live stats and a live video webcast will be available at CNUsports.com.
The matchup against the Eagles will be the 58th career meeting between the two programs. Christopher Newport rails the all-time series, 27-30, but swept the season series against Bridgewater last year. Coming into the game, the Captains have won two in a row with an extra-inning win against Marietta, 21-10 (10 inn), and a mercy-rule shortened game versus No. 13 Cortland, 17-5 (7 inn).
The Captains are 5-1 overall including wins at home against Eastern Mennonite and a double-header sweep versus Southern Virginia. The lone loss came to then-No. 2 Denison, now ranked No. 5, in the D3 Showcase this weekend.
Offensively, the Captains are averaging 11.8 runs per game while hitting .358 as a team. Senior
Josh Reinhold is hitting a team-leading .500 through the first six games while scoring nine runs and driving in nine hitting in the middle of the lineup. Junior first baseman
Aaron Maxie, the C2C Player of the Week, is hitting .483 and coming off back-to-back 5 RBI performances. Maxie leads the team with 15 RBI and 24 total bases while six of his 14 hits have gone for extra bases. Junior catcher
Cameron Slough has also reached double-digit RBI already this season with 10.
Seven CNU players have started five or more games this year and all seven are hitting .313 or better to start the year. Senior leadoff man
Jake Benedict is hitting .379 with 11 base hits and has scored a team-high 12 runs scored.
Jacob Koenig, hitting .348,
Sam Benedict, at .316, and
Logan Adams, hitting .313 round out the impressive offensive contingent so far this season.
Brayden Mazzoni has snagged 12 at-bats this season and registered five hits for a .417 average that includes driving in the game-winning run against Marietta in a wild, ten-inning affair.
Bridgewater has started the year 7-0 and is also led by a strong offensive unit averaging over 10 runs per game. The Eagles have three starters hitting over .400 through the opening stretch including Trent Holland with a team-high .483 average. Chandler Valbak (.478) and Bransen Hensley (.435) round out the trio that have combined for 21 RBI and 20 runs scored. On the mound, Bridgewater has a 2.95 team ERA and is led by Cam Nuckols (2-0, 2.45 ERA) with 11.0 innings pitched.
The Eagles swept a three-game series against DeSales to start the year and followed it with home wins against Hood, Southern Virginia, and two versus McDaniel.
Following the mid-week matchup against Bridgewater, the Captains are scheduled to host No. 15 Messiah University for three games this weekend.
