St. Mary's City, Md. – The St. Mary's College of Maryland baseball team fell in non-conference action Wednesday afternoon to No. 5 Christopher Newport University, 8-2. The Seahawks fall to 3-3 overall while the Captains improve to 11-2-1 on the season.
The Seahawks and Captains played to a scoreless tie through the first three innings of action before Christopher Newport stuck for two runs in the top of the fourth and three more in the top of the fifth to take a 5-0 lead. CNU would add another run in the top of the seventh for their largest advantage of the day, 6-0.
Trailing by six runs entering the bottom of the seventh inning, senior Corey Napier (Hollywood, Md./St. Mary's Ryken) led off with a single up the middle to put the lead-off runner on base for the first time all afternoon for the Seahawks. Sophomore Zach Nadolny (Bel Air, Md./Bel Air) made sure to capitalize on the base runner, powering a two-run home run over the leftfield fence to pull the Seahawks within four runs at 6-2. St. Mary's would put two more runners on base, with runners eventually advancing to second and third with two outs, however, were unable to push another run across the plate.
Christopher Newport would tack on two insurance runs in the top of the ninth inning for a final of 8-2. Napier led the Seahawk offense going 2-for-4 on the afternoon with one run scored. Five other Seahawks recorded one hit on the afternoon while Nadolny led the Seahawks with two RBI.
Senior Carlos Cruz (Lexington Park, Md./Great Mills) suffered the loss for St. Mary's on the mound as Cruz gave up five runs on nine hits, while striking out two and walking one.
Three Christopher Newport players tallied at least two hits with junior Justin Weaver (Nokesville, Va./Brentsville) leading the way as he has all season with three hits and three RBI. Sophomore Jordan Boze (Mechanicsville, Va./Lee-Davis) picked up the win for the Captains pitching five scoreless innings while striking out seven. On the day, the Captains struck out 13 Seahawk batters.
St. Mary's will return to the field Saturday, March 2 when they welcome the Green Terror of McDaniel College to the Hawk's Nest for a non-conference doubleheader. First pitch is slated for noon.
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