NEWPORT NEWS, Va. -- Christopher Newport senior outfielder Jake Benedict collected his second career All-Region certificate to headline a group of three Captains to garner the postseason honors as released by the ABCA and D3baseball.com on Tuesday. Benedict was selected by the ABCA while junior Cameron Slough earned second team plaudits at catcher and graduate student Jackson Baird earned third team honors at pitcher from D3baseball.com. 

Benedict earned third team ABCA All-Region honors to become the first CNU outfielder since Tommy Vitaletti (2016) to garner multiple All-Region picks in his career. Slough is the third backstop in program history to garner All-Region honors joining Ryan Grubbs (2019) and Lincoln Lubsen (2024) while Baird is the most recent in a storied history of honored arms in Christopher Newport lore. 

Slough picked up his first career postseason honor with a second team nod after serving as the starting catcher in 42 of the 43 games for the Captains in his third year. Named a first team All-Conference player in 2026, Slough was one of the top run producers on the team with 38 RBI and 38 runs scored. He hit .349 on the year while slugging .520 and reaching base at a .457 clip. 

The Glen Allen, Va. native ranked second on the team in extra-base hits with 15 doubles, one triple, and 3 home runs. He also led the team in free passes with 26 walks. He opened the season with a bang, blasting his third career grand slam in game two of the year to tie for the program record in career grand slams. He was a consistent threat in the lineup throughout the year with 17 multi-hit games and 10 multi-RBI performances. Behind the plate, he managed the CNU pitching staff and featured a dangerous arm warding against stolen base threats with 16 caught stealing during his junior campaign. Overall, he posted a .991 fielding percetnage with just three errors in 349 total chances. 

Joining Slough on the D3baseball.com All-Region teams was battery mate Jackson Baird. The right-handed starting pitcher returned to CNU for his fifth year and quietly put together a dominant season on the hill for the Captains. He started 14 games in 2026 and registered a 4-4 overall record with a team-best 3.54 ERA. In 73.2 innings pitched, Baird struck out 85 batters while walking just 26 and holding opponents to a .249 batting average against. 

A first team All-conference selection, Baird twice earned a selection to the D3baseball.com National Team of the Week and was once named the C2C Pitcher of the Week. Over the course of his career, Baird was 12-7 with a 3.41 ERA in 38 games pitched with 194 strikeouts in 177.0 innings pitched. He rank sixth all-time in lowest opponent batting average (.226) and eighth in most strikeouts/9 inning game (9.86). This season, he also checked into the top-ten all-time in career strikeouts with 194, ranking ninth all time. 

Rounding out the All-Region selections in 2026 is senior center fielder Jake Benedict. A starter in 42 of the 43 games played this season, Benedict hit .333 out of the leadoff spot and led the team in extra-base hits with 22. He scored a team-high 52 runs and drove in 30 with 95 total bases in his final campaign to close out the year slugging .519. 

Benedict added nine stolen bases and closed out his career on a 23-game on-base streak. He led the team with 19 multi-hit games and added nine multi-RBI games including a career-high 6 RBI performance against Marietta in the D3 Showcase in Greensboro, N.C. He earns third team ABCA Region VI honors after being selected a D3baseball.com Preseason All-American and hauling in second team All-Region honors a year ago by both organizations. 

The 2026 season came to an end in the NCAA Regional Championship against No. 3 Lynchburg where the Captains closed out the year with a 26-17 overall record. It was the fourth time in the last five seasons that CNU reached the regional championship game and Christopher Newport was making its 13th NCAA Tournament appearance in 26 seasons under head coach John Harvell.