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Charlotte Downs Furman 11-6
May 17, 2005
GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Corey Lane homered, doubled, drove in four runs, and scored twice to lead Charlotte to an 11-6 win over Furman in baseball action Tuesday evening at Furman Stadium.
Lane, a sophomore second baseman from Kernersville, N.C., who went 3-for-6 in the contest, opened the game with a solo home run over the left field fence and delivered a two-run triple in the second to stake the 49ers to a 4-0 lead. He finished off his performance with an RBI single in a two-run 49er ninth.
With the victory Charlotte improves to 27-23 on the season while Furman, which has dropped four straight, falls to 23-27. The 49ers beat Furman 6-1 on April 19.
B.J. Hagen (2-0) earned the victory in relief, pitching two innings and surrendering three hits while striking out four.
Matt Foard picked up his third save of the season after allowing only two hits and no runs over the final three innings.
Charlotte racked up 14 hits in the contest, including three home runs. In addition to Lane, the 49ers got three hits, including a home run from O'Brien Taylor, who also scored four runs, and two hits by Mike Ambrose.
Furman was paced at the plate by Andrew Greene's 4-for-5 performance. Sam McLain, playing in the final home game of his Paladin career, went 3-for-4, and Nick Wajda and Matthew Betstill added two hits each for Furman.
Kyle Funk (0-4) took the loss after yielding four runs on four hits in only 1 1/3 innings of action.
After Lane deposited the second pitch of the game over the right field fence for a 1-0 lead, the 49ers added three more in the second. O'Brien Taylor singled to lead off, advanced to second on a sacrifice, and to third on a fielder's choice. Lane then followed with two-run triple, his national leading 11th of the season, and Ambrose capped the three-run rally with a double to center field to score Lane.
Furman made it 4-1 in the bottom of the frame on McLain's RBI single to right field.
Charlotte added to its lead with two more runs in the third on Chris Lane's two-run home run over the left field fence for a 6-1 lead.
The Paladins pushed across an unearned run in the third to make it 6-2, but Charlotte regained its five-run lead in the fifth on Alex Bryant's run scoring single.
Furman struck for four runs in the fifth to make it a 7-6 contest. Wajda doubled to lead off and later scored on an Andrew Greene double down the left field line that chased 49er starter Spencer Steedley. The rally continued against reliever B.J. Hagen, who allowed Greene to move to third on a wild pitch before yielding an RBI single to A.J. Davidiuk. The Paladins tacked on two unearned runs following an infield error, including an RBI double by McLain.
Charlotte stretched its lead to 9-6 in the seventh on a two-run home run to left field by O'Brien Taylor and added two insurance runs in the ninth.
Furman wraps up its regular season this weekend with a three-game Southern Conference series at Davidson starting on Friday at 7:00 p.m.
