The Niners delivered their first two home runs of the season in game two. Photo by Ben Robson.
The Charlotte 49ers baseball team looked to rebound in game two of Saturday’s double-header against No. 20 Florida Atlantic. The same pitching problems that plagued the Niners in game one resulted in an 18 run explosion at the plate for the Owls who coasted to an 11-run victory.
“We had several issues with allowing big innings today,” said 49ers head coach Loren Hibbs.
“We saw flashes of some really good things, but we had some issues with closing out innings. We’ve got to to do some things to develop more depth and try and stay away from some of those big innings.”
Charlotte (4-8, 0-5) was locked in at the dish in the in the early innings, jumping on top 2-0 in the bottom half of the first. Sophomore Zach Jarrett delivered the first home run of the season for the 49ers when he drove a 3-2 pitch over the wall in left field, scoring Brett Netzer from second.
FAU (17-3, 2-0) responded with two runs of their own to knot things up in the third inning. Netzer continued to swing a hot bat as he put the Niners back in front with his team-leading ninth RBI of the season.The true freshman plated lead off man Derek Gallello with his base hit into right field, giving Charlotte a 3-2 lead through three frames.
Unfortunately for fans in the Queen City the Owls caught fire late in the game after chasing starting pitcher J.D. Prochaska who delivered a solid outing on the mound for the Niners. Charlotte’s bullpen struggled mightily, allowing 15 runs in just three innings of work.
FAU ran laps around the bases in a six-run top of the seventh. The 49ers shuttled in seven different relievers out of the bullpen in an attempt to stop the bleeding, but the Owls relentlessly tacked on four more runs in the eighth and a five-spot in the ninth inning.
Charlotte attempted to rally in the bottom of the seventh behind the strength of a three-run bomb off the bat of senior Brad Elwood. Elwood and the Niners used a little two-out magic as his first round-tripper of the season cut the deficit to just three runs at 9-6.
Matt Horkey and Alon Smith combined to allow eight earned runs in just two-thirds of an inning as FAU coasted to an 18-7 victory. The 49ers will need an efficient outing from freshman southpaw Josh Maciejewski (1-0, 1.35 ERA) in the series finale on Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m.