NEWPORT NEWS, Va. -- The Coast-To-Coast Athletic Conference All-Conference awards for baseball were announced on Wednesday with seven Christopher Newport Captains earning a spot among the esteemed postseason collection. Six CNU players earned first team All-Conference honors while a seventh secured honorable mention accolades in 2026. 

Headlining the group of first team picks were two-time selections Jake Benedict and Aaron Maxie. Earning All-Conference plaudits for the first time were Jackson Baird, Sam Benedict, Gus Croll, and Cameron Slough. Rounding out the 2026 honorees is Josh Reinhold, a three-time All-Conference pick at shortstop hauling in an honorable mention nod this year. 

One of the most consistently reliable players in Christopher Newport history, senior outfielder Jake Benedict collects first team All-Conference honors for the second straight year after being named a preseason All-American by D3baseball.com in 2026. Benedict has started 138 of his 142 career games played including the last two years as the leadoff man for the CNU offense. 

This year, Benedict is hitting .352 and leads the squad in total hits (56) and total runs scored (46) in 37 starts as the center fielder for the Captains. He also leads the team in extra-base hits with a team-high six homers and 15 doubles this year to head into the postseason slugging .560. A second team All-Region star as a junior, Benedict has continued to add to his career success in his senior year by climbing to eighth all-time in career runs scored (145) while smacking 183 hits as a .340 career hitter. 

With Benedict setting the table, junior first baseman Aaron Maxie has been the beneficiary of RBI opportunities this season and the lefty bat has taken advantage of the chance. Having already established himself in the top-ten all-time with a .411 batting average in 2025, Maxie has added his name to the list again in 2026 with a team-leading .421 mark this season. He leads the league in hitting and has driven in a team-high 37 runs. Maxie is riding a 12-game hitting streak, the longest of the season for CNU, and has delivered 11 multi-hit games this season for the Captains.

His run production has been elite, hitting nearly .500 with runners in scoring position (.489) while also driving in a team-high 14 runs with two outs this year. Heading into the postseason tournament, Maxie has 12 doubles, 4 home runs, and 29 runs scored while slugging a team-high .645 while also pacing the Captains in on-base percentage with a .489 mark. While his bat has been potent, the glovework in the field has been unprecedented as his defense has been flawless in 220 attempts -- that is the highest number of chances for an errorless season in program history by nearly 60. 

Playing to his right at second base, Sam Benedict has also provided elite-level defense for the Captains throughout his career. The ABCA Region All-Defensive Team selection in 2025 has put together another highlight-reel season for CNU defensively with 54 putouts and 63 assists this year while dazzling fans with sensational plays throughout 2026. He earns first team All-Conference honors after hitting .374, ranking third on the team, while leading the team in stolen bases (10). Benedict has been one of the toughest Captains to strike out in 2026, with just eight K's on his ledger, while picking up 46 hits in 123 at-bats. 

Also earning first team honors for the offense is Gus Croll, a junior outfielder who started 29 games and played in 30 contests this year for CNU. Enjoying a breakout campaign, Croll caught fire in the second half of the season and elevated his average to .390 for the year with an eight-game hitting streak including seven multi-hit performances.  Since earning a spot in the starting lineup on March 22, Croll is hitting .458 (33-72) with 26 RBI in a 19-game stretch. Over the course of the whole season, Croll has 33 RBI, 20 runs scored, and ranks second on the team with a .484 slugging percentage. 

The Captains' starting catcher for all 38 games this year has been a workhouse behind the plate and junior Cameron Slough was rewarded with first team All-Conference honors. Slough is hitting .358, slugging .540, and reaching base at a .471 clip to post an OPS over 1.000. He ranks second on the team in runs batted in with 36 and is also second on the team with 34 runs scored. Slough has 18 extra-base hits including 14 doubles, 1 triple, and 3 home runs while also leading the Captains in walks with 25 this season. Slough has also demonstrated a rocket of an arm behind the plate, cutting down 16 would-be base stealers this season while adding one pick off. 

Throwing to Slough in a team-high 12 starts this season, graduate student Jackson Baird collects his first career All-Conference certificate as a starting pitcher for the Captains. Baird finished the year with a 4-4 overall record and 3.79 ERA with dominant stuff that saw him finish the year with a career-high 76 strikeouts. Baird held opponents to a .257 batting average against and his 2026 season ranks eighth all-time, sixth among starters, in K/9 ratio with an 11.09 rate. All-time at CNU, Baird ranks sixth in batting average against (.228) and seventh in K/9 (10.09) with 165.0 innings pitched over 33 starts. 

Rounding out the 2026 All-Conference honorees is two-time first team All-Conference shortstop and the 2023 C2C Rookie of the Year, Josh Reinhold. Earning an honorable mention All-League nod following his senior campaign, Reinhold is concluding a storied career as the starting shortstop for four years as a Captain. Reinhold ranks third all-time in career assists and eighth in double plays turned while appearing in 149 career games with 146 starts. This season, Reinhold is hitting .327 with 32 runs scored and 22 RBI. Continuing his career-long penchant for reaching base, Reinhold ranks second on the team in walks with 23 free passes and reached base safely in all but four games played. Over the course of his career, the veteran has reached base in 140 of his 149 career games played and ranks in the top-ten all-time at CNU in number of times reached safely (321 walks + hits + hit-by-pitch).

Salisbury nearly swept the individual honors in the All-Conference awards with Nathan Trondeault being named the Player and Rookie of the Year for the Sea Gulls while Aidan Brinsfield and Cole Williams were named Pitcher of the Year and Scholar-Athlete of the Year, respectively. Rounding out the individual honors was Kelly Swiney and the coaching staff at Mary Washington being named the top unit in the conference in 2026. 

Christopher Newport, the #3 seed in the 2026 Coast-To-Coast Athletic Conference Tournament is 24-14 and will travel to No. 7 Salisbury, the #2 seed, for the semifinals on Friday, May 8. First pitch will be thrown out at 3:00 p.m. with the winning team advancing to the championship game on Saturday, May 9. 


2026 Coast-To-Coast Athletic All-Conference Baseball Awards
Player of the Year: Nathan Tondreault – Salisbury
Pitcher of the Year: Aidan Brinsfield – Salisbury
Rookie of the Year: Nathan Tondreault – Salisbury 
Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Cole Williams – Salisbury
Coaching Staff of the Year: Kelly Swiney – Mary Washington
 

2026 All-C2C Baseball First Team
NAME	YEAR	POS.	TEAM	HOMETOWN	PREVIOUS ALL-C2C HONORS
Aidan Brinsfield	Jr.	SP	Salisbury	Salisbury, Md.	1st in '25
Gavin Riley	Sr.	SP	Mary Washington	Fredericksburg, Va.
Jackson Baird	Sr.	SP	Christopher Newport	Gainsville, Va.
Cole Williams	Jr.	RP	Salisbury	Silver Spring, Md.	HM in '25, Rookie in '24
Cameron Slough	Jr.	C	Christopher Newport	Glen Allen, Va.
Aaron Maxie	Jr.	1B	Christopher Newport	Mechanicsville, Va.	1st in '25
Sam Benedict	Sr.	2B	Christopher Newport	Glastonbury, Conn.
Collin Clarkson	So.	SS	Mary Washington	Glen Allen, Va.
Jackson Inman	So.	3B	Salisbury	Damascus, Md.	1st in '25
Nathan Tondreault	Fr.	OF	Salisbury	Oakton, Va.
Jake Benedict	Sr.	OF	Christopher Newport	Glastonbury, Conn.	1st in '25
Connor Hassan	Jr.	OF	Mary Washington	Clifton, Va.	1st in '25, HM in '24
Dylan Oblepias	Fr.	DH	Regent	Fulshear, Texas
Will Maloney	Sr.	SP	Regent	Midlothian, Va.
Marco Fernandez	Jr.	SS	JWU Charlotte	Boca Raton, Fla.
Gus Croll	Jr.	OF	Christopher Newport	Ocean City, Md.
Oliver Martin	Jr.	C	Mary Washington	Clarksburg, Md.	HM in '25, 1st in '24
2026 All-C2C Baseball Honorable Mention
NAME	YEAR	POS.	TEAM	HOMETOWN	PREVIOUS ALL-C2C HONORS
Jack Rucker	So.	RP	Salisbury	Arlington, Va.
Bryce Sterling	Sr.	RP	Salisbury	New Castle, Del.
Josh Reinhold	Sr.	SS	Christopher Newport	Lewes, Del.	1st in '25, 1st in '24, Rookie in '23
Nathan Vaughan	Fr.	2B	Regent	Hanover, Va.
Maddox German	So.	1B	Regent	Fairfax, Va.
Logan Howland	Fr.	C	JWU Charlotte	Clayton, NC
Matthew Boyd	Sr.	SP	Mary Washington	Bristow, Va.	HM in '25
Ryan Henson	So.	1B	Mary Washington	Reston, Va.