Behind a second consecutive outstanding start from Cameron Hansen, the Charlotte 49ers baseball team took down Dallas Baptist 8-1 in the final game of the weekend series between the two at Hayes Stadium on Sunday afternoon (March 26).
Sunday's contest had the first weather delay of the season for Charlotte (10-13, 3-3 C-USA) when play was halted for 43 minutes in between the second and third innings due to heavy rain.
One week after keeping LA Tech off the board in a combined shutout, Hansen was back at it this week with a career-best eight innings pitched to earn his second win of the season. He only gave up two hits and one run, coming on a solo home run in the second inning. Hansen didn't allow another hit again until the eighth inning and only issued two walks in the game.
He struck out eight DBU (16-8, 4-2 C-USA) batters in the contest for a career-high, which doubled his previous season-best from this campaign. Hansen gave way to Evan Michelson for the ninth, who pitched the final frame for the second consecutive game. Michelson gave up one hit in the ninth but induced Charlotte's second double play of the game in the field to end the game.
Six different Niners recorded a hit in the contest, with Kaden Hopson and Cam Fisher each picking up a pair. Hopson had a double for CLT's only extra-base hit after the DBU center fielder slipped on the wet grass in the outfield after the rain. Fisher's two singles give him 11 multi-hit games this season and came in a 2-3 day at the plate after he was intentionally walked by the Patriots twice.
Will Butcher, Jack Dragum, Dante DeFranco, and Austin Knight all had one hit each and all four drove in at least one run, with Butcher, Dragum, and DeFranco each bringing home two. Charlotte's other run was brought home on a bases-loaded walk drawn by Blake Jackson.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Charlotte got the scoring started in the opening frame with a pair of runs. Jackson drew a walk with one out - one of his three free passes to first in the game - and moved up to third when Fisher beat the shift through the right side to put runners on the corners. Dragum drew a walk to load the bases and the pair in scoring position came home when DeFranco found the grass in center for a two-run single with two outs.
The visitors cut CLT's lead in half in the next inning with a solo home run for its only scoring play of the game. The Niners went down in order in the bottom half of the second before the game entered the delay for the rain. Hansen was on fire coming out of the break, sitting down the next 11 batters he saw and only giving up one walk until the eighth inning.
Charlotte broke the game wide open in the sixth inning with six runs to add some insurance for the remainder of the game. JD Suarez and Spencer Nolan drew back-to-back walks with one out before Knight stepped up for his hit to right-center that plated Suarez and moved Nolan 90 feet away from the dish.
Hopson was then hit by a pitch to load the bases and Jackson worked a walk to bring home another run to make it 4-1. Butcher came in to pinch-hit with the bases still juiced and put one through the left side to bring home two more and keep a pair on. Fisher had his second hit of the day with another single that made it through the right side to re-load the bases and Butcher and Jackson both crossed the plate when Dragum bounced one off the mound and into center field.
Dallas Baptist got its second hit of the game in the eighth inning with a leadoff single before Hansen punched out the next two and got a popup to shortstop from the final batter he faced. After the Niners went quietly in the bottom half of the inning Michelson took over on the bump and gave up a one-out single before getting a tailor-made 6-4-3 twin killing to send Niner Nation home happy.
UP NEXT
Charlotte is back at Hayes Stadium on Tuesday (March 28) when Gardner-Webb comes to town. First pitch against the Runnin' Bulldogs is scheduled for 6 p.m. and the game will be streamed live on ESPN+.
