FREDERICKSBURG, Va. -- Closing out the 2026 regular season on the road at Mary Washington, the Christopher Newport baseball team battled with every at-bat but ultimately fell to the Eagles in the finale, 7-6. Mary Washington locked up the top seed in next week's Coast-To-Coast Athletic Conference Tournament and Christopher Newport slid to the #3 seed with the setback.
In the de facto regular season championship game, the Captains erased a 1-0 deficit after three by scoring five of the next six runs to open up a 5-2 advantage. The Eagles responded by tying the game up in the bottom of the sixth before slipping back ahead with two runs in the eighth. Putting up a fight to the bitter end, the Captains scored one run in the final frame, but could not manage to even the score one last time and the hosts escaped with a 7-6 win.
This season, the C2C Tournament seeding was determined by head-to-head results between CNU, Salisbury, and Mary Washington. With the victory over the Captains, Mary Washington won the regular season crown outright with a 3-1 record with Salisbury finishing the year 2-2 and CNU at 1-3. The Eagles will face #4 Regent in the semifinal round on Thursday with CNU set to travel to #2 seed Salisbury University on the same day. The winners will advance to Saturday's conference championship game at the highest seed remaining.
Christopher Newport leaned on fifth-year veteran
Jackson Baird in the start as the right-hander was effective through five innings. He struck out the first two batters he faced and retired the side in order through the first and second innings. In the third, Mary Washington nicked him for one run on two hits, but Baird locked in and stranded a pair to limit the damage to just one run.
In the top of the fourth, the CNU offense backed up their starter with two runs on three hits.
Aaron Maxie got the inning started with a single, shooting a liner the other way.
Gus Croll added a single into center field to put Maxie in scoring position and senior
Stone Lasseigne ripped an RBI single to right field on the first pitch he saw. With the score even at one run apiece and runs at a premium in the early going, the Captains elected to call for a squeeze with Croll at third and
Ashton Hylton at the plate. Executed perfectly, Hylton got the ball down and Croll evaded the tag at the plate for the go-ahead run.
Mary Washington evened things up in the bottom of the fourth with a sacrifice fly, but Baird finished out another strong inning with back-to-back punchouts.
In the fifth, CNU teetered back ahead with three runs including a big blast off of
Gus Croll's bat.
Sam Benedict reached on an error and the miscue extended the inning for the Captains as
Cameron Slough took advantage with an RBI double to right center field. The two-base hit put CNU ahead again, 3-2, and brough up Croll with a runner on base. After taking the first pitch high, the junior outfielder timed up the second offering and turned on it for a two-run home run over the left field wall. It was the fourth home run of the season for Croll and the veteran has continued to swing a hot bat for the Captains with his seventh multi-hit game in the last eight games.
With the lead again, Baird added another strikeout to start the fifth and induced an inning-ending double play against one of the top bats in the lineup for the Eagles. In the bottom of the sixth, though, Baird ran into some issues with control and Mary Washington loaded the bases with a pair of walks and a hit by pitch. That would signal the end of the day for Baird as the Captains called on
Mitchell Mortensen out of the pen. The first batter he faced tied the game back up with a three-run double before MOrtensen retired the next two batters on fly balls to end the threat, but not before the damage was done and the game was knotted up again.
Both teams were quiet in the seventh, as
Ryan Morrison came on for the Captains and got three groundball outs. The Captains had one hit over the next two innings when Maxie singled up the middle, but the Eagles bullpen kept CNU off the board.
In the bottom of the eighth, Mary Washington scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch and added another run on an RBI ground out to take a 7-5 lead with just three outs left to play for the CNU offense.
Sam Benedict reached on an error and moved up to second on a single by
Josh Reinhold to bring Maxie up representing the go-ahead run. Working into a hitter's count, one of the league's top hitters came through in the clutch with an RBI single through the right side, pulling CNU within a run at 7-6. Mary Washington escaped the threat by stranding Reinhold and Maxie on the bases with a strikeout and a groundball out to end the game.
Maxie and Croll were each 3-for-5 in the game to lead the CNU offense with 3 RBI and 3 runs scored combined. Slough's RBI double and Lasseigne's RBI single rounded out the big hits for the Captains while
Jake Benedict and Reinhold each added base hits.
Ryan Morrison was saddled with the loss and fell even to 3-3 on the year. Baird finished with six strikeouts and now has 76 on the year to mark a new career high. He moved into a tie for seventh all-time in backwards K's with 62, matching Bryan Bierlein (2011-14) and Will Somerindyke (1997-00).
Christopher Newport will now turn its attention to postseason play with the Coast-To-Coast Athletic Conference Tournament starting on Thursday.
