Brandon Vogler delivering a pitch. Photo by Chris Crews.
The Charlotte 49ers (15-19, 5-7 C-USA) piled up 15 hits in Wednesday night’s loss to the North Carolina A&T Aggies (9-26), giving up too many free passes and not capitalizing with runners on base, losing 9-7.
“You have to give A&T credit but we just had too many poor at bats and made it too easy for them to score,” said Head Coach Loren Hibbs after the loss.
NC A&T opened up the game by putting up two runs in the first inning off of Brandon Vogler who only went 2.1 innings in his second start of the season, giving up three runs on four hits.
Charlotte did their best to help out Vogler on offense, as Reece Hampton led off for the 49ers in the first with another lead off single, one of three hits at the plate for the freshman on the night. Brett Netzer hit second in the lineup, walking on four pitches, bringing up the power hitting Logan Sherer.
Sherer doubled down the left field line, scoring Hampton and moving Netzer up to third, making that 35 RBI’s for Sherer. T.J. Nichting then reached base after a dropped pop fly from the Aggie shortstop, loading the bases for Charlotte.
With bases chucked full of Niners, Netzer and Sherer scored on two wild pitches from the Aggie pitcher, giving the 49ers a 3-2 lead after just one inning at the Hayes.
The Aggies added another run in the top of the third off of Vogler, tying the game up, leading to Matt Horkey getting the call out of the bullpen for Charlotte.
Derek Fritz led off the fourth for the 49ers, as Hampton followed Fritz with a single of his own. Netzer stepped to the plate, shooting a ball to right-center, scoring Fritz from second and moving Hampton to third.
Sherer singled between the shortstop and the third baseman, bringing in Hampton for his second RBI of the night and giving Charlotte a 5-3 lead after four innings.
NC A&T struck right back, scoring two runs in the fifth and three in the sixth, giving the 8-win Aggie baseball team a 8-7 lead after Charlotte tagged on a couple more runs in the fifth and sixth.
The 49ers trailed by two runs heading into the bottom of the ninth, needing the bottom of the lineup to get on base to give Charlotte any chance for some late inning magic. Ober singled to start the home half of the ninth, but failed to get anywhere on the bases after three straight fly outs.
Hibbs said, “We have shown glimpses of being a really good team but we haven’t shown the consistency that we all desire and want to get to.”
Charlotte will travel to Middle Tennessee for a three game Conference USA series starting Friday at 7:00 p.m.
Logan Sherer digging hard to get a double. Photo by Leysha Caraballo.