No preview from me this weekend as I just got back to Chicago, and have been up to my eyeballs in work and the sale of my NYC co-op. There's also a scarcity of information available on the 49ers, as Boyd does not even have a link to their website (which I found through google).

Charlotte comes into this series with a 4-2 record, having played as many games (6, all at home) as they've had cancelled. They opened the season losing two of three close games to Akron, but then shutout North Carolina State, and beat both UNC-Greensboro and North Carolina A&T. Here's their schedule and results to date...
http://warrennolan.com/baseball/2015/schedule/Charlotte

Over the small sample of games played so far, their offense has not been very impressive (.202 team AVG, with only one batter hitting over .280), but their pitching has been off-the-charts (0.69 ERA, .195 BAA, 0.98 WHIP, 3:1 BB:K ratio), with all three weekend starters boasting ERAs under 1.00. Here's the individual and team stats...
http://www.charlotte49ers.com/fls/23200/...amcume.htm

Eric Sorenson ranked the 49ers #203 in his preseason Top 301 countdown...
http://www.collegebaseballtoday.com/2015...s-of-2015/

Quote:203- CHARLOTTE (19-31, 10-19)
Projected Conference USA Finish: 10th
2014 ISR: 182

Starters Returning: 6
Weekend Starters: 0
Mid-Week Starters: 0
Key Relievers (15+inns.): 3

Aye! It was a rough transition to CUSA, and it’s not a positive prognosis for the Niners in 2015. Feel free to shock us Niners. All three weekend starters are gone, two of which were draft picks. So look for a lot of new faces on the mound. One of those will be JC transfer J.D. Prochaska, a lefty who could be a pace-setter in the rotation. Also, the offense hit an anemic .252, but they will have their two top hitters returning in Derek Gallello and T.J. Niching, who both hit .283.

After the debacle in Fort Worth on Tuesday, we really need a road sweep to regain our mojo and footing, and get a jump start in the conference race. (Note-- all other CUSA teams do not start conference play until next weekend.) To state the obvious, the defense MUST tighten up considerably and putting us in a hole early. It's going to be another cold weekend, particularly in the Friday opener (3:00pm CST). Let's play like we're capable, and open the CUSA slate like the champions we are. Go Owls!

Perfect Game picked Charlotte to come in dead last in CUSA...
http://www.perfectgame.org/Articles/View...icle=10772

Quote:UNC Charlotte: Like most teams in the conference, UNC Charlotte welcomes back some of their top performing bats for the 2014 season. Senior infielder Derek Gallello looks to for another strong year after being tied for the 49ers top batting average (.283) and led the team with an on-base percentage of .361. He should be a contributing factor at the top of the order with his on-base skills and ability to swipe a base. Sophomore T.J. Nichting had a freshman year to remember and carried that strong performance well into the summer season. After hitting .283 last spring, Nichting – a C-USA freshman all-conference member – looks to pace the offense this spring building off his 2014 numbers while playing lock-down defense in the outfield. The 49ers top two power bats are also back in the form of two-way Logan Sherer and sophomore Zach Jarrett. Sherer will be looked upon to throw some big innings and also anchor the middle of the lineup just as he did last year, leading the team with five home runs and 29 RBI. Jarrett appeared in 44 games collecting eight extra-base hits, two of which were home runs. Brett Netzer and Luke Gibbs are two newcomers who are expected to make an immediate impact on both sides of the ball. In terms of pitching, UNC Charlotte lost their three weekend arms but picked up a JUCO arm and have several returning options. Lefthander J.D. Prochaska is a 6-foot-3 transfer from Allen County College and will step right into the starting rotation after going 4-3 last spring while averaging more than a strikeout per inning en route to earning an all-conference selection. Righthander Brandon Volger has starting experience and appeared in eight games, while Nate Traugh appeared in 18 games, all out of the bullpen. Sophomore lefthander Sean Geoghegan returns after not throwing last spring, giving the 49ers another option as he performed well his freshman year, showing a strong feel for the strike zone by walking only two in nearly 20 innings out of the bullpen.

D1baseball also picked the 49ers to finish last in conference...
http://www.d1baseball.com/season-preview...rence-usa/

Quote:

Charlotte looks to rebuild and feels the talent level is up from last season. Derek Gallego (.283/0/8), Logan Sherer (.260/5/29), and T.J. Nichting (.283/1/17) should lead the lineup. J.D. Prochaska and Brandon Vogler (1-2, 3.67) are the top pitchers. Nichting hit .283 with just 17 RBIs last season, but is expected to take as step forward after putting together an impressive summer from an offensive standpoint. The 49ers enter the season under a cloud of turmoil after the program was rocked by a hazing scandal in the fall, which resulted in the dismissal of five players.

Ugh, just looked at their roster...

http://www.charlotte49ers.com/SportSelec...SID=363414

...this is NOT a favorable matchup for us, as all 3 of their starting pitchers are left-handed (vs. our left-handed laden lineup). They also have 6 left-handed (or switch hitting) batters in their everyday lineup going against our predominantly right-handed pitching staff. Let's not take these guys lightly. Take care of business.

Here are the Charlotte game notes...

http://www.charlotte49ers.com/ViewArticl...=209928018

...and the more comprehensive one for the media...
https://www.nmnathletics.com/pdf9/3248417.pdf

Here's the Rice game notes...

http://www.riceowls.com/sports/m-basebl/...15aaj.html

UT falls to Stanford 5-4 in the opener of their 4-game series in Palo Alto.

Sunny skies and 44 degrees forecasted for game time today...

http://www.accuweather.com/en/us/charlot...ast/349818

...should feel warm for the players compared to what we've played in the past 6 games.

We need Kevin McC to pitch the way he did against Texas this afternoon. Go Owls!

Greetings from Charlotte!
Nice to see some actual baseball discussion here. Our board doesn't really care all that much.

We had low expectations going into this season as we lost our 3 weekend starters to the draft and 3 of our better offensive players to a hazing investigation a few months ago. I've been pleasantly surprised with our pitching thus far and was hoping it wasnt "fools gold" coming into this series. The lefty you saw yesterday missed all of last year with TJ surgery, and was only a spot reliever as a frosh. I thought he did well. The lefty you will see today is a JUCO from Kansas. He's making his 3rd career start and has been impressive so far this season. Our Sunday freshman lefty started for us on Wednesday so you may not see him this weekend. He has struggled in his 2 starts. If you don't see him, you will likely see another one of our Freshman making their 1st career start.

Offensively we have done next to nothing. Hopefully our bats will warm up when the weather does.

We gave had so few games, with so many new players it is hard to know what we have so far. We are in the middle of ramping up from A-10 to C-USA baseball and our talent level has been raised. We have 2 C-USA caliber recruiting classes under our belt and as you can see we have either Freshman or Sophomores starting all over the place.
We are a work in progress, but I think we will surprise some people this season. We will find out a lot about our team early on thanks to the conference scheduling us Rice, FIU, and FAU to open the season.

Good luck guys!

(03-07-2015 09:11 AM)Mr. Bojangles Wrote:  Greetings from Charlotte!
Nice to see some actual baseball discussion here. Our board doesn't really care all that much.

We had low expectations going into this season as we lost our 3 weekend starters to the draft and 3 of our better offensive players to a hazing investigation a few months ago. I've been pleasantly surprised with our pitching thus far and was hoping it wasnt "fools gold" coming into this series. The lefty you saw yesterday missed all of last year with TJ surgery, and was only a spot reliever as a frosh. I thought he did well. The lefty you will see today is a JUCO from Kansas. He's making his 3rd career start and has been impressive so far this season. Our Sunday freshman lefty started for us on Wednesday so you may not see him this weekend. He has struggled in his 2 starts. If you don't see him, you will likely see another one of our Freshman making their 1st career start.

Offensively we have done next to nothing. Hopefully our bats will warm up when the weather does.

We gave had so few games, with so many new players it is hard to know what we have so far. We are in the middle of ramping up from A-10 to C-USA baseball and our talent level has been raised. We have 2 C-USA caliber recruiting classes under our belt and as you can see we have either Freshman or Sophomores starting all over the place.
We are a work in progress, but I think we will surprise some people this season. We will find out a lot about our team early on thanks to the conference scheduling us Rice, FIU, and FAU to open the season.

Good luck guys!

Thanks for the additional info and welcome. You guys actually match up well against us, with your southpaw starting pitching going against our left-handed laden lineup (with even our two switch hitters much better hitters from the left side). Believe it or not, we're also very young for a Rice squad-- no less than 8 newcomers are either starting or seeing significant action (Gray, Lewis, Chandler, Myer, Salinas, Otto, Solecitto, Pettitte). Best of luck on your season....starting next week!