CHARLOTTE – Charlotte Baseball needed only seven innings to pick up a win in its first-ever meeting on the diamond with Queens, beating the Royals 11-1 in a run-rule victory on Tuesday evening (March 24) at Hayes Stadium.
 
The Niners (16-9) jumped out to a 4-0 lead and never looked back, out-hitting Queens (6-18) 8-2 in the rout. Charlotte’s eight hits came from seven different batters, with only Dylan Koontz recording a multi-hit game with a pair of knocks.
 
The two hits allowed are tied for the fewest number of hits Charlotte’s pitching staff has given up in a game this year, joining the win over No. 11 Virginia and the first victory over Western Carolina the following weekend.
 
“I thought our guys showed up ready to go,” said head coach Robert Woodard. “I felt like they had that look like they wanted to get back on the baseball field after our travel day home from Oklahoma City yesterday, which is what you want to see as a coach. Queens is coming off of a big weekend series win over Jacksonville. They’ve been playing good ball so for us to come in here and put up a four-spot right out of the jump was huge. Something we tried to focus on today was staying ahead of guys and getting to two strikes as fast as we could, and I give our pitching staff a lot of credit. We faced 24 batters and had 18 first-pitch strikes. On the offensive side of the ball, I felt like the game could’ve been a lot closer if we didn’t have two-out and two-strike hits from a bunch of guys. A total team win, a great bounceback, and a really good night in terms of preparation for a good weekend against South Florida.”
 
Todd Hudson‘s hit in the game was a two-run homer in the fifth inning, his fourth home run of the season. It brought home Spencer Nolan after Nolan had an RBI-single right before him, one of three runs scored in the game for Nolan.
 
Cody Gunderson singled in the first to start the scoring for the Green and White while Alec DeMartino, Cale Stricklin, and Adrian Jimenez all had hits as well.
 
Wesley Jones made his fifth start on the mound and notched his second win of the season. Attacking hitters early and often, Jones totaled six strikeouts in 4.2 innings of work while issuing a single run on two hits and three walks. Chase Carson and AJ Camp followed and didn’t allow a single baserunner between the two of them, with Carson throwing 1.1 flawless innings and Camp spinning a 1-2-3 seventh.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Charlotte wasted little time getting the scoring started, plating four runs on just a single hit in the first frame. Gunderson opened the scoring with the only hit of the inning, placing one into left field to bring home Nolan from second. Koontz was hit by a pitch to load them up, setting up an RBI-groundout to the right side from Nedry to double CLT’s lead. A wild pitch plated Gunderson from third and an error brought Koontz home for the final run of the opening frame.
 
After both sides went down in order in the second, Charlotte tacked on two more in the third. Koontz and DeMartino ripped back-to-back singles on consecutive pitches to put a pair on to start the inning. A sac bunt moved both into scoring position and a sacrifice fly from Stricklin brought Koontz in. DeMartino moved up to third on the sac fly and then scored when Jimenez found the wall in center for a double.
 
Queens got on the board in the fourth with a solo home run but the Niners got the run back right away with a single from Koontz in the home half of the fourth. Nolan led the inning off with a walk and moved up to third on a pair of outs. Koontz stepped to the dish with the two outs and found the grass in center to bring Nolan home the final leg.
 
Four more came across in the fifth, pushing the Green and White into double digits. Robert Nedry led the frame off with a walk and moved into scoring position when Stricklin poked one through the left side. A groundout to first moved both runners up, setting up a similar groundout from Johnny Sutryk to bring the first run of the stanza home. Nolan was the next batter up and put one into the gap in right for the second run, before Hudson bounced a two-run blast off the video board right above where Nolan’s single went.
 
Carson sat the side down in order in the sixth and then Camp came in to finish it off in the seventh with the 10-run lead intact to trigger the run rule.
 
UP NEXT
Charlotte has its first home conference series of the year this weekend when South Florida comes to The Hayes. The weekend gets started on Friday (March 27) at 6 p.m., followed by games on Saturday at 4 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m.