Captains, behind Chitsaz, defeat Eagles 14-4

Mark Graziano/The Captain's Log

The baseball team closed out a big weekend on Sunday afternoon with a win over Bridgewater College 14-4 at Captain’s Park. Coming off a win on Saturday over the 2nd-ranked team in the nation, Cortland State, the Captains were able to score plenty of runs behind the ace of the pitching staff, Sean Chitsaz.

Chitsaz, a junior who has battled injuries during the past two years, made his third start against Bridgewater College and was able to show why Head Coach John Harvell has trusted him to be his Sunday starter.

After a 1-2-3 inning in the first for both teams, Bridgewater opened up the scoring with a run in the top of the second off a double by junior second baseman Alex Nuttycombe. CNU answered the score by adding runs of their own.

After a leadoff single by junior catcher Ben Lenda, and a double by junior first baseman Steven Lindemuth, Junior infielder Matt Shoemaker lined a triple into the gap to give the Captains a 2-1 lead.

It didn’t take long for CNU to add to that lead as freshman shortstop Billy Steel continued his phenomenal start to the season with his first career homerun.

“The way he has started the season, he should be offensive Rookie of the Week,” said Rob Silsbee, the Director of Sports Information, about Steele’s team leading 11 runs batted in. Steele is also hitting .421 and is leading the team with a .538 on base percentage.

Bridgewater tried to rally back in the top of the third inning when they had runners on second and third with one out, but a base running error by senior outfielder Kevin Kirk ended the Eagles potential rally.

Chitsaz settled in and retired the side in order during the fourth and fifth innings. The Captains added to their lead in the bottom of the fifth, after junior outfielder Connor Madden lead off the inning with a double.

He was advanced to third after a bunt by sophomore center fielder Shannon Mark, and on the next pitch, senior right fielder Drue Vernon hits a sacrifice fly to score Madden.

Bridgewater got one run back in the top of the sixth inning off a solo homerun by junior infielder Jay Thompson. The Captains were able to answer right back in the bottom of the sixth as the new pitcher for Bridgewater, junior John Bayse, came in and struggled to throw strikes. The Captains added two runs on a Bridgewater error, and a single by Mark brought the score to 7-2.

After a quick top of the seventh, CNU put the game out of reach by adding six more runs in the bottom half of the inning on a Madden 3-run homerun and doubles by Shoemaker and Steele.

“We played great ball this weekend, but the next week are going to be tough,” said Shoemaker about the upcoming schedule.

The Captains will be at home on Tuesday against rival Virginia Wesleyan before hitting the road for the longest road trip of the season. The Marlins head to Captains field on Tuesday after returning from a Georgia trip where they went 1-2 winning their last game against Lynchburg College.

CNU and Virginia Wesleyan split the season series last year, each winning their home game. The Captains will head to Catholic University in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday before heading to Greensboro to open USA South Conference play on Saturday. n

Posted by Brent Furbee on Feb 23 2011. Filed under Baseball, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.