Charlotte 49ers Baseball Captures 3rd Place from FAU with Series Win
- Sam Perry
- Apr 27
- 4 min read
Pitching propels the Niners to a vital AAC series victory
Charlotte 49ers baseball took a three-game series against the Florida Atlantic University (FAU) Owls over the weekend to move past them in the American Athletic Conference (AAC) standings for sole possession of third place.
“That's one of the best lineups in our conference,” said Head Coach Robert Woodard. “It's tough to strike them out and put up zeroes, especially in game three after they've seen us all weekend.”
The 49ers took game one 3-0 behind a dominant pitching performance from pitcher Blake Gillespie. Game two went to FAU 8-5 after their hot bats took an early lead, and they never surrendered it. Charlotte came out on top behind another strong pitching performance and lively bats, taking game three 4-2.
Gillespie’s Gem
Friday night’s contest became a noon contest after potential unfavorable weather was forecasted, and the pitcher’s duel between two of the AAC’s best in Charlotte’s Gillespie and FAU’s Trey Beard livened up lunchtime.
"Both their guy, Trey [Beard], and our guy, BG [Gillespie], went punch-for-punch with each other through eight, with Blake being just a bit more efficient, like he usually is,” said Woodard. “He got a chance to go back out for the ninth for the complete game shutout, which is a bit of a throwback. You don't see a ton of those in this day and age. But with an extra day of rest and the preparation that goes into his daily and weekly routine, we felt good about letting him go back out there. It felt like his stuff was continuing to hold in the seventh and eighth to allow him to go back out for the ninth.”
The game was kept scoreless through seven innings as both starters remained composed, working through a couple of jams. But the Niners hitters were able to work counts a little more than the Owls, which led to Beard not returning for the eighth inning.
In the top of the eighth, Gillespie ran into some trouble after getting two quick outs. FAU pieced together back-to-back two-out singles, which led to a 49ers mound visit. After a short chat with Woodard, Gillespie came out and got the strikeout to strand the runners.
With the bullpen taking over for FAU, Charlotte wasted no time in pouncing on the opportunity, with designated hitter Blake Martin getting on base with a lead-off single. Catcher Logan Poteet sacrificed him to second, and shortstop Connor Maryniak plated him with an RBI single to break the scoreless tie.
After getting on the board, outfielder Noah Furcht ensured that the 49ers had things under control with a two-run homer hit out amongst the trees to go up 3-0.
With the firm lead in hand, Gillespie got to come back out in the ninth inning and close things out for his second complete game of the season.
Owls Swoop Win
Florida Atlantic took game two after the two teams traded a run in the first, but grew a 3-1 lead in the fourth inning that held up strong the rest of the game.
First baseman Emilio Gonzalez hit a two-run homer in the fourth and a three-run homer in the sixth innings to put the Owls up 6-1 heading into the bottom half of the sixth inning.
Infielder Chandler Riley hit an RBI single, and Martin followed that with an RBI walk to help trim the FAU lead to 6-3 in the sixth inning.
But outfielder John Schroeder negated that with a two-run homer in the top of the 7th to send the Owls soaring to an 8-3 lead, which was answered in the bottom frame with catcher Cody Gunderson hitting a two-run bomb of his own to cut Charlotte’s deficit to 8-5.
FAU called on pitcher MJ Bollinger to close out the final two innings, which he did, throwing two scoreless and hitless innings, giving up one walk while fanning three en route to the save.
Dawson’s Dawn
After not getting a hit in the first two games of the series, infielder Dawson Bryce’s bat came alive on Sunday, propelling the 49ers to a victory over the Owls.
Charlotte’s offense came through early with a run scoring on a double-play, followed by an RBI single from Bryce to put them up 2-0 in the 1st inning.
Florida Atlantic cut the lead in half with an RBI single from outfielder Marshall Lipsey to make it 2-1 in the top of the third inning. Bryce responded with a two-run homer in the bottom of the third to regrow the lead to 4-1.
After throwing seven scoreless innings on Tuesday against Kennesaw State University, pitcher Mike Szturma got the Sunday start. He pitched five innings, giving up one run on two hits and two walks while striking out two as he went on to get the win.
The Owls welcomed the bullpen with the second batter faced by pitcher Joseph Taylor being second baseman John Martinez, who hit a solo homer to cut the Niners' lead to 4-2 in the sixth inning.
After the homer Taylor settled back in on the bump and closed out the game, throwing 4.0 innings while giving up one run on one hit and two walks while striking out six in route to the save in the 4-2 win.
Players of the Series
Gillespie, in his second-best outing of the season, threw another complete game shutout. Gillespie set the tone in his outing, giving up four hits and two walks in nine innings and punching out 12 batters. He now sits at 99 strikeouts on the season, leading the AAC.
Gonzalez was the engine behind FAU’s lone win in the series with two homers and five RBI in Saturday’s contest, leading the team to an 8-5 victory.
Maryniak was the definition of consistent at the plate this weekend, hitting .692 (9-13) with four runs scored, one double and one RBI.
Upcoming
Charlotte heads up to Buies Creek, NC, to take on the Campbell University Camels on Tuesday, April 29, at 6 p.m.