NEWPORT NEWS, VA. – The Apprentice School baseball team ventured up town on Wednesday afternoon to take on NCAA Division III third-ranked Christopher Newport University and fell 5-3 at Captains Park.

CNU (23-4) got on the board first scoring three times in the bottom of the third as Matt Shoemaker drove in Billy Steel and Steven Keener drove in a pair with a single for the early 3-0 advantage.

The Builders got a pair of runs back in its half of the sixth.  With two outs, Devorn Lake singled and advanced to third on a single from Travis Franklin.  Andrew Hooper followed with a scorcher to third base whose throw was high allowing Hooper to reach and Lake to score.  Ryan Hendrickson followed with a single to left which got by the outfielder enough to allow Franklin to score for a 3-2 deficit.

Christopher Newport pushed a run across in the bottom of the sixth on a RBI single from Shannon Mark and another run in the eighth by an unearned run off an error to lead 5-2.

Apprentice School (17-12) made things interesting in the ninth off CNU closer Ryan Fleischmann.  Chris Perry started the inning with a double and advanced to third on a Travis Cherry groundout.  Trevin Wilson followed with a single to left which plated Perry for a 5-3 score.  That was only the third time this year that Fleischmann has given up a run in 16 appearances.  Chris Aldridge followed with a double to put runners at second and third before Fleischmann got the last two outs to earn his sixth save.

Lake and Hendrickson had three hits each for the Builders who out-hit CNU 11-6.  Ryland Edwards took the loss throwing 5.2 innings and allowing six hits and four runs.  Freshman Sam Massie threw the last 2.1 innings and struck out four while allowing an unearned run.

Apprentice School looks to get back in the win column on Thursday afternoon with a 2 pm start against Rappahannock CC at War Memorial Stadium.