Niner Nuggets- Week 5

After a big series win at C-USA preseason favorite LaTech, Charlotte sits at 2-1 in conference play. The Niners got a great effort on the mound and at the plate this weekend to secure the series, outscoring the Bulldogs 24-8 over the series. UTSA & Rice completed sweeps in week 1 and sit 1 game ahead of Charlotte in the early standings. Cam Hansen’s performance on Sunday earned him C-USA Pitcher of the Week honors.

This week, the Niners welcome Dallas Baptist to the Hayes after hosting nationally ranked South Carolina uptown on Tuesday. DBU was picked to finish 2nd in their first season as a baseball member of Conference USA.

A look at the national rankings for teams of interest this week:

D1 Baseball– 10 ECU; 11 South Carolina; 15 UNC

Baseball America– 10 ECU; 14 South Carolina; 19 UNC

USA Today Coaches Poll– 10 ECU; 11 South Carolina; 16 UNC; RV- VT, ODU, UTSA

Charlotte has currently played the toughest schedule in Conference USA based on Strength of Schedule, where the Niners currently rank 13th in the country. South Carolina comes to the Queen City with an RPI of 2 so that SOS will only get stronger.

The RPI data is starting to settle a little more this week with CLT sitting at 104. We use Warren Nolan as our source for RPI data and overall Conference USA is rated 11th with a record of 99-72 out of conference.

Here is how Conference USA stands after one weekend of conference play, listed in order that CLT plays them:

Here is a look Charlotte’s non-conference opponents & their results from last week: