Your Source For All Things Charlotte 49ers Baseball

We are back with the final regular season edition of Niner Nuggets. This is a slightly abbreviated version as we are about to hit the road to Columbia to watch the Niners. All the charts have been updated.

Charlotte jumped 10 spots in the RPI to 75 after a 2-1 week last week, and are tied for 5th in C-USA with 3 games left to play.

Conference USA

We are in the final week of the regular season and all 8 spots have been clinched for the C-USA Tournament. UAB has locked down the 8 seed, but everything else is up for grabs. Charlotte can finish as high as the 2 seed and as low as the 7th seed. Below is a chart showing the current standings, the remaining schedules, and tie breakers.

A look at Week 13 overall results and what’s ahead in Week 14 for Conference USA, sorted by RPI. Overall Conference USA stayed at 5th in RPI. All 8 tournament teams are in the Top 100 RPI. Bold denotes teams that come to the Hayes. Charlotte does not play FIU this season.

Out of Conference Opponents

A look at the teams on the 49ers’ schedule, sorted in order that they have played the Niners. The Niners will play their final OOC game today at South Carolina.

Charlotte is 17-7 out of conference and has beaten 3 current conference leaders (UConn, Campbell, & College of Charleston).

We are back with the Week 13 edition of Niner Nuggets. They are out a little later than normal with no mid-week game this week. Charlotte had the week off for exams and will travel to Boca Raton to face FAU this weekend. Currently Charlotte is riding a 9 game C-USA win streak including weekend sweeps of UAB, Marshall, and Rice.

Charlotte fell 5 spots in the RPI to 85 after a 3-1 week last week, and are tied for 5th in C-USA with 2 weeks left to play.

Rankings (Teams of interest in the national rankings)

• Baseball America: 7 Louisville, 17 Southern Miss, 18 UConn
• D1 Baseball: 7 Louisville, 13 UConn, 14 Southern Miss
• USA Today Coaches Poll: 11 Southern Miss, 10 UConn, 8 Louisville, RV Old Dominion, RV Coastal Carolina

Conference USA

There are 2 weeks remaining in the season and only USM & UTSA have clinched spots in the tournament. The Top 8 teams qualify for the C-USA tournament and no one has been eliminated yet. There are still 7 teams in the running to win the regular season title. Below is a chart showing the current standings, the remaining schedules, and tie breakers.

A look at Week 12 overall results and what’s ahead in Week 13 for Conference USA, sorted by RPI. Overall Conference USA stayed at 6th in RPI. Bold denotes teams that come to the Hayes. Charlotte does not play FIU this season.

Out of Conference Opponents

A look at the teams on the 49ers’ schedule, sorted in order that they have played the Niners. The only remaining non- conference game left on the schedule is a road trip to South Carolina next Tuesday.

Charlotte is 17-7 out of conference and has beaten 3 current conference leaders (UConn, Campbell, & College of Charleston).

We are back with the Week 12 edition of Niner Nuggets. The Niners will travel to Chapel Hill on Tuesday, and return home to host Rice this weekend at the Hayes. Currenty Charlotte is riding a 9 game win streak including two consecutive weekend sweeps.

Charlotte moved up 9 spots in the RPI to 79 with a 5-0 week last week, and are tied for 6th in C-USA with 3 weeks left to play.

Rankings (Teams of interest in the national rankings)

• Baseball America: 7 Louisville, 13 Southern Miss
• D1 Baseball: 7 Southern Miss, 10 Louisville, 15 UConn
• USA Today Coaches Poll: 7 Southern Miss, 13 UConn, 10 Louisville, RV North Carolina, RV West Virginia, RV Davidson

Conference USA

There are 3 weeks remaining in the season and all eyes are starting to focus on the Conference USA Tournament seeding. The Top 8 teams qualify for the C-USA tournament. With 9 conference games remaining, no one has clinched a spot, and no one has been eliminated yet. Below is a chart showing the current standings, the remaining schedules, and tie breakers.

A look at Week 11 overall results and what’s ahead in Week 12 for Conference USA, sorted by RPI. Overall Conference USA moved up to 6th in RPI. Bold denotes teams that come to the Hayes. Charlotte does not play FIU this season.

Out of Conference Opponents

A look at the teams on the 49ers’ schedule, sorted in order that they play the Niners. There are only 2 more out of conference games remaining and they are both on the road.

We are heading down the final stretch in the Conference USA Baseball season with 4 weeks remaining. There is still plenty up for grabs rolling in to Week 11 as we look toward the C-USA Tournament.

C-USA has 12 schools that play baseball and only the Top 8 teams qualify for the tournament. With 12 games remaining, no one has clinched a spot, and no one has been eliminated yet. Below is a chart showing the current standings, the remaining schedules, and tie breakers.

We are back with the Week 11 edition of Niner Nuggets. The Niners will host UNC Asheville on Tuesday, NC A&T on Wednesday and then travel to Marshall this weekend. It looks like ther will be radio only for the mid-week games and the games at Marshall will be shown on Marshall’s YouTube channel.

Charlotte moved up 29 spots in the RPI with a 4-0 week last week, and are tied for 7th in C-USA with 4 weeks left to play.

Rankings (Teams of interest in the national rankings)

• Baseball America: 6 Southern Miss, 12 Louisville
• D1 Baseball: 4 Southern Miss, 15 UConn, 16 Louisville
• USA Today Coaches Poll: 5 Southern Miss, 16 UConn, 17 Louisville, RV North Carolina, RV West Virginia

Conference USA

A look at Week 10 results and what’s ahead in Week 11 for Conference USA, sorted by RPI. Overall Conference USA moved up to 7th in RPI. Bold denotes teams that come to the Hayes. Charlotte does not play FIU this season.

Out of Conference Opponents

A look at the teams on the 49ers schedule, sorted in order that they play the Niners. Currently, the Niners have faced 3 conference leaders in UConn (Big East), Campbell (Big South), and College of Charleston (CAA) out of conference.

We are back with the Week 10 edition of Niner Nuggets. The Niners will host Coastal Carolina on Tuesday and UAB this weekend.

The Niners had their 2nd C-USA Pitcher of the Week this week as Matt Brooks took home the weekly award. Matt pitched a 1 hit shutout vs Winthrop on Tuesday night & was 1 out away from a no-hitter.

Rankings (Teams of interest in the national rankings)

• Baseball America: 7 Southern Miss, 13 Louisville
• D1 Baseball: 6 Southern Miss, 15 UConn, 16 Louisville
• USA Today Coaches Poll: 6 Southern Miss, 16 Uconn, 18 Louisville, RV North Carolina, RV West Virginia, RV Davidson

Conference USA

A look at Week 9 results and what’s ahead in Week 10 for Conference USA, sorted by RPI. Overall Conference USA moved up to 8th in RPI. Bold denotes teams that come to the Hayes. Charlotte does not play FIU this season.

Out of Conference Opponents

A look at the teams on the 49ers schedule, sorted in order that they play the Niners.

We are back with the Week 9 edition of Niner Nuggets. The Niners will host Winthrop on Tuesday and travel to MTSU for the weekend.

Rankings (Teams of interest in the national rankings)

• Baseball America: 9 Louisville, 14 Southern Miss
• D1 Baseball: 9 Louisville, 11 Southern Miss, 18 UConn
• USA Today Coaches Poll: 11 Louisville, 14 Southern Miss, 21 Uconn, RV North Carolina, RV Davidson, RV LaTech

Conference USA

A look at Week 8 results and what’s ahead in Week 9 for Conference USA, sorted by RPI. Overall Conference USA moved up to 9th in RPI. Bold denotes teams that come to the Hayes. Charlotte does not play FIU this season.

Out of Conference Opponents

A look at the teams on the 49ers schedule, sorted in order that they play the Niners.

We are back with another edition of Niner Nuggets. We are going to start utilizing this platform a little more as the season goes on.

Rankings (Teams of interest in the national rankings)

• Baseball America: 11 Louisville, 20 North Carolina, 22 Southern Miss
• D1 Baseball: 12 Louisville, 18 Southern Miss, 22 North Carolina, 25 UConn
• USA Today Coaches Poll: 14 Louisville, 20 North Carolina, 24 Southern Miss, RV Uconn, RV Davidson, RV Purdue

Conference USA

A look at Week 7 results and what’s ahead in Week 8 for Conference USA, sorted by RPI. Overall Conference USA is 10th in RPI. Bold denotes teams that come to the Hayes.

Out of Conference Opponents

A look at the teams on the 49ers schedule, sorted in order that they play the Niners.

With conference play set to start, it’s time for our annual look at a sampling of year-over-year (over year) metrics. Here are the numbers and a few observations:

	2020	2021	2022
Record	9-8	11-8	11-5
RPI	121	41	111
Strength of Schedule	71	14	148
Offense
Runs/Game	5.35	7.11	8.44
Batting Avg.	.259	.283	.299
On Base %	.374	.354	.436
Slugging %	.339	.354	.487
Doubles	20	36	33
Home Runs	8	30	23
Walks	94	60	117
Strikeouts	130	145	132
Stolen Bases-Attempts	15-23	19-21	24-29
Pitching
Earned Run	6.34	3.44	4.09
WHIP	1.58	1.34	1.36
Opponent Batting Avg.	.262	.206	.236
Walks	84	98	68
Strikeouts	157	207	156
Doubles	35	28	19
Home Runs	17	12	11
Fielding
Fielding %	.957	.982	.972
Errors	27	12	16
Double Plays	20	28	10
Stolen Bases Allowed	52	19	23
Runners Caught Stealing	5	7	7

Observations

• Coming into the season we would not have guessed that the strength of schedule (SOS) would be 148 based on the names on the schedule. But there’s no way to know how it’s going to shake out once the game start. Statistically speaking, the Western Illinois series is holding the SOS back. On the flip side, the Niners already have some resume-quality wins. The win over UCONN comes to mind. Plus, there are plenty of opportunities ahead to build the resume on the schedule both in league play and during the mid- week. There’s still reason to believe this will be a top 50 schedule when the dust settles.
• The program’s positive offensive trend continues. Runs/game, batting average, on-base %, and slugging % are all at 3 year highs. Here’s the scary part (for the opponents): the starting lineup has been intact for exactly two games to this point due to injury. Josh Madole missed the first two weeks of the season. Once he returned, Austin Knight went out. Now that both of them have returned, David McCabe has missed time. McCabe is day-to-day at the moment. If the Niners can get the lineup healthy, look out.
• The pitching staff continues to make progress. Most notably, walks are down. Limiting free passes was an area of emphasis for the staff in the offseason and it appears to be paying dividends. That group has had it’s share of bad luck with the injury bug as well. Lefty Christian Lothes is out for the season after having Tommy John in the Fall. C-Lo is undergoing rehab and looks to be back strong next season. An important part of the bullpen, Evan Michelson, has also missed time but should be getting close to making a return. In the meantime the staff has turned to a number different arms that have stepped up. AJ Wilson and Michael Oh are great examples.
• As with any season, this is a marathon, not a sprint. The non-conference weekends are over and the 10 week conference grind is just beginning. The roster has shown what it is capable of. The Niners have been in every game they’ve dropped. In particular, the season opener against Louisville and the Friday night game vs WVU sting because they were so close. The series finale against App stings because the Niners actually did win it, but we digress. The point is, that the team appears to be finally getting healthy as we head into the meat of the schedule and that’s a good thing.

Here’s a look at how our teams of interest are doing this season. It is probably still too early to worry about RPI but we’ve posted it anyway: