The Royals pushed their winning streak to four with a 9-7 non-conference win over Christopher Newport Tuesday afternoon in Harrisonburg.  Six of EMU's batters had multi-hit games as the men improve to 12-5.

The Captains took a 1-0 lead in the second, but Eastern Mennonite took over in the bottom of the frame.  The first four batters reached safely, capped by Conner Smith's (Chesapeake, Va./Oscar Smith) two-run double.  Back-to-back RBI groundouts then made the score 4-1.

CNU tied it up with homers in the third and fifth innings, but Ryan McAlister (Bridgewater, Va./Turner Ashby) started a two-out rally in the bottom of the fifth.  The senior scored from first on a deflected single up the middle and the rally was on.  After a CNU error, Brandon Carroll (Fredericksburg, Va./Stafford) stuck a ground-rule double into the fence to score one run, a wild pitch scored another, and an RBI single made the score 8-4.

In the seventh, Christopher Newport plated three runs to get within one run, but Kyle Mathews (Chesapeake, Va./Great Bridge) gave the men a little breathing room with an RBI single in EMU's half of the inning.

Neither team scored in the eighth, and then catcher Kyle Salladay (Chesapeake, Va./Grassfield) stepped from behind the plate to the pitcher's mound to fire a 1-2-3 ninth for the save.

Both teams had 14 hits.  Carroll and Ryan Hedrick (Bridgewater, Va./Turner Ashby) each had two hits, two runs and an RBI.  Mathews finished 2-3 with two RBIs and a run.

Kyle Armstrong (Greenville, Va./Riverheads) started on the hill but was chased after giving up four runs in 4.2 innings.  Ryan Tierney (Front Royal, Va./Warren County) pitched a scoreless 1.1 frames and earned the win to improve to 2-0.  Aaron Hooven (Carroll, Va./Carroll) and Salladay combined for 2.2 scoreless innings to close the game, with Salladay picking up his second save.

Eastern Mennonite returns to the field on Wednesday, hosting ODAC opponent Shenandoah University in a single game at 3:00pm.