The Charlotte 49ers baseball pitching staff kept the Army Black Knights off the board until the eighth inning in an 11-2 victory for the 49ers in the series finale between the two teams on Sunday afternoon (Feb. 26) at Hayes Stadium.

Charlotte (4-4) had a shutout going until the penultimate frame when a two-run homer from Army (2-4) broke it up. CLT got off to its best defensive start of the season thanks to a strong outing from starting pitcher Miles Langhorne, who tossed five innings of shutout baseball with only three hits allowed and no walks.
 
Collin Kramer relieved him and pitched the next three, giving up the two-run blast on two hits but striking out seven - one shy of his career best. Nick Cosentino made his first appearance in the Green and White after Kramer, and Hale Sims closed the game out.
 
Cam Fisher followed Saturday's two-homer performance up with his third of the season in Sunday's finale, and Josh Patrick hit his first as a Niner in the opening frame to become the seventh different CLT batter to leave the yard this season. Both tallied multiple RBIs on the day as Patrick's deep shot came with two runners on and he then singled in Fisher in the seventh for a game-high of four, while Fisher had one runner on for his home run.
 
Joining them with multiple RBIs was Blake Jackson, whose lone hit of the contest was a double with the bases loaded that cleared them, resulting in three runs crossing the plate. Along with Fisher and Patrick, Will Butcher also picked up a pair of hits and crossed the plate twice. Eli Weisner also had a hit in the game and drove in a run when he drew a walk with the bases loaded.
 
WORDS FROM WOODARD
"You'd rather not have your back against the wall in the second weekend of the season but it is what it is," head coach Robert Woodard said after the win. "A really good Army team put us in that position and we felt like we also put ourselves in that position. We talked about that and said 'let's see what kind of team we are with our back against the wall.' To our players' credit, they showed what they can do in that situation. Every day is a learning experience and we're so early in the season that we are putting a heavy emphasis on learning and improving. If we have to play like our back is against the wall the rest of the season, I'm all for it."
 
"I'm very proud of Miles," Woodard continued on Sunday's starter. "He is extremely talented and is a very hard worker. We've seen him have some really fantastic performances in the preseason so to see him go out there wasn't really much of a surprise to those in our program. We might look back at the end of the season and see that his start in this game was something that really turned us around and got us going."
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Charlotte opened the scoring in the first inning for the second game in a row when Patrick left the yard with two outs. Butcher doubled to the gap in right and Kaden Hopson drew a walk to set the table for Patrick's homer, which narrowly missed colliding with the video board beyond the wall in right.
 
The Niners tacked on four more in the third inning, taking advantage of an Army error that kept the inning going. Fisher drew a walk and Butcher legged out an infield single as a result of a swinging bunt on a check swing with one out. Hopson was up next and appeared to ground into a 4-6-3 double play that retired Butcher at second and ended the inning.
 
Woodard and the Niners challenged the call, stating that the shortstop missed the base at second. The umpires reviewed the play and determined the fielder had indeed missed the bag at second, allowing Butcher to be safe at second on the error and the inning to continue with two outs.
 
That proved costly as Patrick walked to load the bases and then Weisner drew a second consecutive walk after working back from a 1-2 count to bring a run home and keep the bags juiced. Jackson was up next and almost hit CLT's second grand slam in as many days but settled for a double off the wall that cleared the bases and extended the Green and White's lead to 7-0.
 
Fisher did his damage in the next inning, making it 9-0 when he put one over the wall just next to the Niner bullpen in right field with Nolan on first. Langhorne then went out and picked up his first and only strikeout of the day in the next half-inning to finish off the fifth. That would be the final batter he faced, as he was relived by Kramer to start the sixth after reaching the minimum of five innings pitched as a starter required to be in line for the win.
 
Kramer struck out three of the four batters he faced in the sixth and then sat down the side in order with two more punchouts in the seventh. His offense rewarded him with two more runs after the stretch, taking advantage of another Army error. Fisher drew a four-pitch walk to begin the frame and moved to second on a groundout from Hopson.
 
The Black Knights tried a back-pick to catch Fisher by surprise at second but the catcher's throw sailed into the outfield, allowing Fisher to take third. He came home in the next plate appearance on a single from Patrick, followed by Weisner's single to keep the inning going and put a pair on. Jackson worked a walk to load the bases and Patrick came home on the fourth pitch from a new Army pitcher that went wild and moved everyone up.
 
That was it for the Charlotte offense and the Black Knights answered at their next opportunity in the eighth. A four-pitch walk, a wild pitch, and a groundout to the right side moved a runner to third with two outs. It didn't matter where the runner was, however, as the next Army batter left the yard in left to break up the shutout four outs away from completion.
 
Both teams moved a runner to second base in their final inning at the plate, but that was all either team could muster as the Niners held on for the 11-2 win, reaching double-digit runs for the second time in the series and third time this season.
 
UP NEXT
Charlotte has its first home midweek contest of the season on Tuesday (Feb. 28) when UNC Asheville visits the Queen City to close out the month of February. First pitch is slated for 4 p.m. on CUSA.TV and represents the last of the 4 p.m. start times for CLT home games this season.