Box Score April 22, 2011
Box Score
Charlotte, N.C. -
The opening act of the Fordham-Charlotte series at Hayes Stadium was just as advertised: a match-up between two of the top pitching staffs in the Atlantic 10. On Friday, Fordham's Brian Pendergast out dueled Charlotte's Andrew Smith for a 2-1 victory for the Rams, the team's seventh win in a row.
With the win, Fordham improves to a season-best 11 games over .500 at 24-13 overall, 7-3 in the Atlantic 10, while Charlotte, who is ranked 28th by the NCBWA, falls to 29-9 on the season, 9-4 in the league. It marks the second straight season that Fordham has a win over a ranked opponent, having defeated then #11 Miami (Fla.) last season.
The Rams hit the scoreboard first, as Nick Martinez singled through the right side to lead off the game in the first inning. Charlotte's second baseman Corey Shaylor slid to stop the ball on the play, but ended up kicking the ball into the bullpen, allowing Martinez to reach second. Ryan David made that a costly error with an RBI-single to center, scoring Martinez for the 1-0 lead.
Fordham made it 2-0 in the top of the third on a solo home run to right by Stephen McSherry, his second of the season.
Fordham starter
Brian Pendergast kept the Charlotte bats without a hit through five innings, but finally yielded a hit to Justin Wilson to lead off the sixth. After a pair of outs left Wilson on second, Shaylor singled up the middle to score Wilson to cut the Rams' lead to 2-1.
The 49ers though were shut down the rest of the way as Pendergast, Rich Anastasi, and Tim Swatek, allowed a total of two hits the entire game. Pendergast (2-5) earned his first win of the season since March 4th against Wake Forest. He gave up just one run on two hits and struck out four batters in 7.1 innings of work. Anastasi pitched one scoreless inning with Swatek recording the final two outs of the ball game for his team-leading fourth save of the season.
At the plate, Martinez was 2-for-4, while David and McSherry each had a hit and an RBI. The hit by David extended his hit streak to a career-high eight games, while Ryan Maghini's 11-game hit streak was snapped with a 0-for-3 night.
The same two teams will met in game two of this series on Saturday at 2:00 PM.
