HOUSTON – No. 3 seed Charlotte eliminated No. 2 seed UTSA 11-2 in the first game of day two of the 2023 Conference USA Baseball Championship on Thursday morning from Reckling Park in Houston on the campus of Rice University.
 
Charlotte jumped out in front in the top of the first when Cam Fisher hit his second home run in as many tournament games, depositing it into the trees deep beyond the right field fence to put the 49ers on top 1-0.
 
Jack Dragum added to the Charlotte lead with a two-out, two-run single to left-center to push the 49ers’ advantage to 3-0 in the top of the second.
 
UTSA pulled a run back in the bottom of the third, when Garrett Poston hit a solo blast to right field to get the Roadrunners on the board. UTSA inched closer later in the frame when Taylor Smith drove in another run on a single to right to cut the Charlotte lead to 3-2.
 
The 49ers tallied a fifth-inning run on back-to-back doubles by Jake Cunningham and Brandon Stahlman to increase their lead to 4-2.
 
Fisher then drove his second home run of the day (and third in the tournament) out of the ballpark in the top of the seventh, which was quickly followed by a Stahlman solo shot to left-center to make it 6-2. Fisher finished 2-for-5 with a pair of long balls, two RBI and a walk, while Stahlman went 3-for-5 with a homer and a pair of RBI.
 
Charlotte tacked on some additional insurance runs in the eighth and ninth, respectively, to put this one out of reach, as the 49ers advanced to another elimination game set for Friday, where they will take on Louisiana Tech, who fell 7-6 to Middle Tennessee.
 
UTSA became the first team to be eliminated from the 2023 C-USA Baseball Championship.