Charlotte 49ers during the pledge of allegiance. Photo by Ben Robson.
The Charlotte 49ers (12-13, 3-3 C-USA) squared off against N.C. State (17-8, 3-4 ACC) at BB&T Ballpark Tuesday night in front of a lively crowd that reached almost 7,500 people, struggling to get on base and keep the Wolfpack off the bases, falling 7-1.
“We never got in a rhythm. We have to give N.C. State credit for that,” said Head Coach Loren Hibbs. “We have to clean some things up but we are still a descent team. We’ve played at pretty good levels at times. Last time we played here, we beat a SEC team.”
J.D. Prochaska got off to a shaky start for the 49ers on the mound, walking two and hitting one Wolfpack batter, bringing up N.C. State’s clean-up hitter, Chance Shepard. Prochaska got behind in the count after throwing three straight balls, but came all the way back to strike out Shepard looking on the inside corner.
Prochaska struck out the next Wolfpack batter, bringing up Rafael Palmeiro’s son, Preston Palmeiro. After a wild pitch from Prochaska that one hopped off the backstop, Stephen Pitarra came in to score the first run of the ball game.
After Prochaska picked up two quick outs in the top of the second inning, pitching Coach Brandon Hall went to the junior Brandon Vogler out of the bullpen, who fanned Joe Dunand for the third out of the inning.
The Wolfpack got their first hit from Palmeiro in the fourth, leading to Vogler’s exit. Jacob Craver trotted out to the mound, hitting his first batter. That led to a three-run single to left center, two of those earned and one unearned after an overthrow from Reece Hampton to third base.
After four complete innings, N.C. State still had a no-hitter intact and found themselves up by four.
Matt Horkey eyeing down a Wolfpack batter. Photo by Ben Robson.
Zach Jarrett had enough of the no-hit talk, leading off the bottom of the fifth with a single up the middle for the first 49er hit. With Jarrett on, Charlotte struggled to move runners over and piece together back-to-back hits to display any real threat to the Wolfpack.
Right before the stretch at BB&T, Hall went to his senior in the bullpen, Nate Traugh, coming in relief for Matt Horkey who pitched 1.1 innings. Traugh struck out his first and only batter and was quickly removed and replaced by Holden Capps for a lefty-lefty match-up that he won against Palmeiro.
Reece Hampton reached base in the eighth with an infield hit up the middle, the second hit of the day for the freshman from Charlotte Christian, increasing his hit-streak to five games.
In the top of the ninth, freshman Drew Morrison got the call out of the pen, being the ninth pitcher used throughout the long night for Charlotte, but Coach Hall still had one more trip left in him. After a short outing from Morrison, Brandon Casas got the 49ers out of the inning with a ground out to Derek Gallello at third, proving to be the tenth and final pitcher to be used for Charlotte.
The 49ers needed the ninth inning to put up their lone run on the scoreboard with many of the fans already heading for the exit gates. Sophomore Brett Netzer singled up the middle to give the 49ers some speed on the base and bring up a man who already hit a home run at BB&T just a few weeks ago against Georgia, Logan Sherer.
Although Sherer didn’t get enough of the ball for a home run, the junior smacked the ball to right center field for a stand-up double, bringing in Netzer to score for Charlotte.
Charlotte used a total of 10 pitchers and issued 10 walks to the Wolfpack batters, almost making coach Hall pay the field crew a little extra money to keep the field green on the line that he used to make his trips to the mound.
After the game, Hibbs said, “The crowd was great. The facilities were great. We just need to play better.”
The road does not get easier for Charlotte as they welcome Southern Miss to Robert and Mariam Hayes Stadium for a three-game Conference USA match-up, starting Friday at 6:00 p.m.
Beautiful skyline at BB&T Ballpark late into the Charlotte vs N.C. State game. Photo by Ben Robson.