NEWPORT NEWS, Va. – Justin Bowers continued his red-hot streak at the plate, blasting two more home runs, but the No. 22 Christopher Newport baseball team dropped a pair to nationally-ranked Salisbury University in Coast-To-Coast Athletic Conference action on Saturday afternoon. The Captains (21-10) suffered a 4-1 loss in game one before falling 7-2 in the second game of the twin bill.
 
In addition to Bowers' power surge, senior Conner Clark continues to chase history for the Captains, racking up four more hits to tie Jordan Mason for the all-time hits record at Christopher Newport with 231 career knocks. He was 2-for-4 in both contests to add to a streak of four consecutive games with multiple hits (9-for-18).
 
Game one featured an impressive pitchers' duel between two of the top arms in the C2C Conference as senior Jimmy Adkins (3-1) took the hill for Salisbury against Christopher Newport sophomore Jay Cassady (6-3). The Sea Gulls' starter tossed a complete game, striking out nine while allowing six. Cassady also allowed only six hits in the game while striking out 11 over 8.0 IP for the Captains. Colin D'Arcy finished out the game in the 9^th with a perfect inning, striking out a pair.
 
Cassady cruised through the Sea Gulls lineup the first time around, facing the minimum through three innings. Salisbury manufactured a run in the top of the fourth inning to take a 1-0 lead, but Cassady worked his way out of a jam to limit the damage. The Sea Gulls tacked on single runs against Cassady in the sixth, seventh, and eighth innings while Adkins kept the Captains offense at-bay.
 
In the bottom of the ninth, Daniel Elliott led off with a single and Alec Reillly moved him to third with a single into right field. Elliott raced home three pitches later on a wild pitch as CNU evaded the shutout with the run scored. Unfortunately, that would be all they could muster as Adkins finished out the ninth for the win.
 
Reilly and Clark led the offense for CNU in game one as they each went 2-for-4 in the game. Elliott and Scott Crosson each rapped one hit apiece in the contest.
 
In game two, CNU faced another stiff test on the mound as Jackson Balzan (7-1) earned his league-leading seventh win of the year with 8.0 innings pitched. Again, the Captains' pitching staff struck out more than the Sea Gulls' arms, with 14 punchouts, but the CNU offense struggled to get going against the tough Salisbury staff.
 
Dylan Weber (3-3) started the game for CNU and struck out the side in the first while working around one run allowed. He struck out another batter in the second and kept the Sea Gulls off the board, but Salisbury struck twice in the third to take a 3-0 lead.
 
With one out in the bottom of the fourth, the Captains cut the lead to two when Bowers stepped in and delivered a towering solo home run to left field. After falling behind in the count, 0-2, the CNU junior worked it back even at 2-2 before getting under a pitch that sailed high into the jet stream and into the netting over the left field wall.
 
Elliott followed with a hard-hit single through the left side but wound up stranded at second base two batters later. The sophomore then came in to pitch for the Captains and worked quickly through the first three innings of relief with 1 run allowed while striking out five.
 
In the bottom of the sixth, Bowers led off the inning and wasted no time homering on back-to-back pitches. The Yorktown, Va. native sent the first pitch he saw from Balzan hurtling toward center field for a no-doubt missile to the deepest part of the park. His 12^th homer of the season moved him into a tie for eighth all-time on the single season chart at Christopher Newport, matching Tab Pabst (1991) and Trey Hicks (2019).
 
The lead was trimmed to 4-2 after the blast, but Salisbury tacked on three insurance runs in the top of the eighth for the final margin, 7-2.
 
Bowers was 2-for-3 with 2 RBI and 2 runs scored in game two and now has four HR in his last nine at-bats. This week, he has reached base in 12 of his last 18 plate appearances to raise his on-base percentage to a team-high .520 on the year.
 
Clark was 2-for-4 in the second half of the twin bill and now has 42 hits to lead the way for CNU while hitting .321 out of the leadoff spot.
 
Christopher Newport will return to action on Tuesday afternoon as they host Washington and Lee University at 3:00 p.m.