Charlotte Takes Series Opener Over LA Tech, 11-3

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Louisiana Tech

5/20/2022 | 6:00 PM

May. 20 (Fri) / 6:00 PM

Louisiana Tech

History CHARLOTTE, NC – The Charlotte 49ers baseball team began its final series of the regular season with an 11-3 victory over Louisiana Tech at Hayes Stadium on Thursday evening (May 19). Spencer Giesting turned in a fantastic outing on the mound, throwing seven innings of relief and allowing just one run on four hits with eight strikeouts for his seventh win of the season. He pitched from the second to the ninth inning before giving way to Matt Brooks, and his 7.0 innings of work are tied for the most he’s thrown in his career. Brooks pitched the final inning and gave up a hit, but induced a 4-6-3 double play to end the game. Hale Sims made his ninth start of the season but only faced six batters before giving way to Giesting in the second. Cam Fisher and Josh Madole each drove in three runs to lead the team, with Fisher picking up his di lui on a team-best three hits. He finished just the triple shy of the cycle – the second time in the last three games a Niner has completed three of the four legs of the cycle after Jake Cunningham missed it by a single at FAU. Fisher hit his team-leading 18th home run of the season to give the Niners 90 on the year, just the third time in program history Charlotte (35-18, 17-11 C-USA) has hit 90 or more home runs in a single season. Madole brought home his three runs on a pair of hits, one of four Charlotte batters to end the game with a pair of knocks. Nate Furman, Jack Dragum, and Kaden Hopson were the other three, with Dragum and Hopson each driving in a run as well. Cunningham joined Fisher and Madole with multiple RBIs in the contest after bringing home a pair to give the Niners the lead in the fourth. HOW IT HAPPENED Both teams went down in order in the first before Louisiana Tech (36-18, 18-10) opened the scoring with a two-run homer to center in the second. It took until the fourth inning for Charlotte to answer but the Niners did so in a big way, putting up five runs on the board to take the lead for good. Furman singled to start the inning for CLT’s first baserunner of the game before David McCabe drew a walk to put a pair on with nobody out. Each runner moved up two bags, scoring Furman, when Madole kept one fair down the line in right for a double. Both McCabe and Madole scored one pitch later when Cunningham singled to centerfield, giving Charlotte the lead. Cunningham moved up to second on his hit after the Bulldog centerfielder misplayed the ball, setting him up to score when Fisher did the exact same thing – singling to center and advancing to second on a misplay by the centerfielder – one batter later. The proved error key again as it allowed Fisher to come home when Dragum put one in the corner in right for a double to make it 5-2 with no outs still in the frame. Five was all the Niners got in the fourth inning but they scored two more in each of the next three stanzas to reach double digits for the fifth time in the last eight games. Cunningham reached on a fielder’s choice in the fifth inning and came home in the next at bat when Fisher launched one into the trees beyond the fence in right. Madole came up to the plate with the bases loaded in the sixth and put one through the right side to bring Hopson and Furman home, and Will Butcher and Hopson tallied back-to-back sacrifice flies in the seventh for the final two runs of the game. Louisiana Tech scored once more in the middle of Charlotte’s run, hitting a solo home run in the top of the seventh for its only run after taking the early lead in the second. UP NEXT Charlotte will look to take the series from Louisiana Tech on Friday evening (May 20) when the teams meet again at Hayes Stadium. First pitch is scheduled for 6 pm, with a ceremony honoring the Class of 2022 graduates before the game and a firework show after the game.

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