CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The Charlotte 49ers baseball team extended its conference winning streak to nine straight thanks to a 9-0 victory over Rice on Sunday afternoon (May 8) at Hayes Stadium.
 
The win makes it three straight weekend sweeps in conference play and was the fifth shutout this season - the most nine-inning shutouts Charlotte (31-17, 14-10) has had in one season since rattling off eight of them in the 2011 campaign.
 
Collin Kramer was the driving force behind the shutout and the victory with a masterful start on the mound. He threw the first seven innings and only allowed one hit - the only Rice (13-34, 6-18 C-USA) hit of the game - while matching his career-best with eight strikeouts on a career-high 97 pitches. Spencer Giesting and Quinton Martinez each pitched one inning to finish the game out, picking up one strikeout apiece, for the second shutout of the weekend.
 
Josh Madole and Will Butcher each brought around three runs in the game to tie for the most on the Niners while David McCabe, Jack Dragum, and Kaden Hopson totaled one RBI each. Dragum had a fantastic day at the plate with a team-best three hits, including a double. McCabe's RBI came off of a two-bagger and Jake Cunningham tripled for Charlotte's only other extra-base hit of the contest. Cunningham and Madole each had a pair of hits to join Dragum with multi-hit games.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Charlotte started the scoring in the first when Butcher brought home a pair with two outs. Nate Furman drew a lead-off walk and went to third when Dragum found a gap through the right side going the other way on a hit-and-run. Dragum swiped second and Cam Fisher drew a walk to load the bases with two away for Butcher, who also found a hole on the right side of the infield to get the Niners on the board first.
 
Kramer turned in a 1-2-3 top half of the second on just eight pitches and the CLT offense rewarded him with two more runs in the bottom half. Furman was hit by a pitch and stole second before coming home on another seeing-eye single from Dragum. The Green and White put the hit-and-run on again with Madole at the plate and it paid off, with Dragum scoring from first to double the lead, 4-0.
 
After another quick inning from Kramer in the third, Rice got its only hit of the contest with a double down the line in right in the fourth. The batter wasn't on base for long as he overslid the bag and was tagged out, representing the final time the Owls had a runner in scoring position. Charlotte tacked on three more in the fourth, starting with a single from Madole that brought home Dragum and McCabe. Madole looked to be out running to second in the next at bat when the Owls attempted to start a double play to end the inning, but the throw from the first baseman to the bag at second bounced off of Madole's helmet and into left field. He moved up to third on the error and scored four pitches later on a sacrifice fly from Butcher to make it 7-0.
 
It remained a seven-run game until the seventh when the Niners scored the final two runs of the contest. Cunningham's triple was the first action following the seventh-inning stretch and Austin Knight followed with a walk to put runners on the corners. Hopson was up next and got his RBI with a fly ball to left to score Cunningham on the sac fly. McCabe then came to the plate with two outs and laced a double to the wall in right-center that scored Knight from first for the second 9-0 shutout the Niners have had this season.
 
UP NEXT
Charlotte does not have a midweek game this week for the first time since the end of February and is back in action on Friday (May 13) at Florida Atlantic for the final road series of the regular season.