NEWPORT NEWS, Va. -- The nationally-ranked Captains fell to 20-9 overall this season following a 5-2 setback to No. 25 Mary Washington on Saturday afternoon. The Eagles improved to 20-8 behind a complete game effort by Gavin Riley.
Taking on the foes from the Coast-To-Coast Athletic Conference, the Captains surrendered three runs in the top of the first that proved to be the difference. The Eagles added two insurance runs with one in the sixth and one more in the seventh while Christopher Newport scored once in the bottom of the first and added another run in the eighth.
Graduate student
Jackson Baird (4-3) suffered the loss for the Captains despite working into the seventh inning on the hill. After giving up three in the first, Baird locked in and retired ten straight batters with five strikeouts to get through four innings. In the fifth, Baird stranded two runners with another strikeout and helped himself out with a highlight-reel snag on a bullet back up the middle. Ending the inning, junior right fielder
Jacob Koenig added another highlight by sprinting to the warning track to make an over-the-shoulder catch to end the inning.
With Baird putting up zeroes, the Captains struggled to manufacture anything offensively. In the bottom of the first,
Jake Benedict was drilled with a pitch and
Sam Benedict singled into center field. After
Josh Reinhold moved them up with a sacrifice bunt,
Aaron Maxie delivered an RBI with a single into right field.
The Captains managed just two hits over the next six innings when
Lukas Miller drove a liner up the middle in the second and Slough singled into left center in the third.
After Mary Washington built the lead to 5-1, the Captains scratched oe across on two hits in the bottom of the eighth inning. S. Benedict doubled down the left field line and raced around to score on an RBI single by Slough two batters later. Unfortunately for the Captains, it would be all the offense they could muster against Riley in the 5-2 setback.
S. Benedict and Slough each finished the game 2-for-4 with Benedict scoring twice and Slough notching one of the two runs.
In relief of Baird, the Captains got two clean innings out of
Charlie Gunn, striking out one, and
Cam Comins closed out the game with a 1-2-3 ninth.
Christopher Newport will return to action on Sunday with a matchup against Regent University at 2:00 p.m.
