Captains slaughter Panthers

On Saturday afternoon, the Christopher Newport Baseball team rolled to their 17th straight victory over conference foe, Ferrum College 15-3, winning by slaughter rule in eight innings. The win marked the 11th time this season that the Captains recorded 10 or more runs in a game.

The offense started early for the Captains after junior third baseman Luke Saunders was hit by a pitch and junior catcher Ben Lenda hit a single. Also, junior first baseman Steven Lindemuth sent a pitch from Ferrum Freshman Chris Walker soaring over the left field fence for a three-run homerun.

The Panthers threatened in the top half of the second inning, loading the bases with only one out, but they were unable to capitalize and get any runs back on CNU.

“We had an opportunity in the second inning to cut into the CNU lead, but we had poor situational hitting,” stated Ferrum Head Coach Darren Hodges. CNU didn’t take their foot off the gas pedal, as they added two more runs in the bottom half of the second, off junior outfielder Connor Madden’s fifth homerun of the season, making the score 5-0.

Senior pitcher Sean Chitsaz–the USA South Conference pitcher of the week last week–stayed focused even with the big lead, and shut down the Panthers in the top of the third with a 1-2-3 inning. CNU struck again in the bottom half of the third, scoring four more runs.

Lindemuth lead off the inning with a walk, and sophomore designated hitter Steven Keener stepped to the plate with one man on and one out, and knocked in his third homerun of the season.

Walker, who was unable to settle down after allowing his third homerun of the day, walked the next batter, freshman shortstop Billy Steele, then gave up his fourth homerun to Madden, for his team best sixth of the season.

Ferrum came back with another opportunity to try and cut into the commanding CNU lead in the top of the fourth, but after leaving two men on base, they came up empty-handed.

The Cougars were finally able to push across three runs in the top of the sixth. After putting the first two runners on base, junior shortstop Paul Jaglowski hit a blooper into right center that fell just short of both center fielder Shannon Mark and right fielder Drue Vernon’s reach. Freshman first baseman Taryn Hayden doubles into left center to bring across the other two runs of the inning.

CNU was able to spark more offense in the bottom of the seventh when Lindemuth and junior second baseman Matt Shoemaker lead off the inning with two frozen rope singles, which led to the designated hitter, Keener’s second homerun of the day, a three run shot.

The Captains were not done scoring. After a walk, Ferrum brought in junior pitcher Brandon Chocklette. On the first pitch of the game for Chocklette, Vernon lined a shot down the right field line that hooked around the foul pole for his first career collegiate homerun. “That’s his first homerun since high school,” Vernon’s mother exclaimed while watching from the press box.

CNU would add another run in the bottom of the eighth inning to end the game due to mercy rule, winning 15-3. The win improved CNU to 18-1, with 17 straight wins. The Captains have a busy week as they take their game on the road.

Posted by Brent Furbee on Mar 16 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.