THE LEAD
No. 13 Dallas Baptist took game one of a three-game series over UNC Charlotte with a 6-3 victory over the 49ers on Friday night at Hayes Stadium in Charlotte North Carolina.  Patriot starter, Joseph Shaw, improved to 8-2 on the season, as the junior right-hander gave DBU six solid innings on the mound and allowed just one earned run, while striking out four.  Offensively, Justin Wall led the charge with a 3-for-5 night at the plate and provided some fireworks with a two-run home run and drove in four runs.
 
DBU (34-9) struck first in the second inning when a Tagg Duce double drove in Daniel Salters.  After UNC Charlotte (17-22) tied the game at one apiece in the bottom of the second, Wall blasted a two-run shot over the wall in centerfield off of 49ers' starter, Sean Geoghegan. 

Charlotte cut the Patriot lead to one in the third inning before the Patriots struck for a run in the fifth on an RBI single by Wall.  An error by the 49ers' second baseman, T.J. Nichting, to open the sixth led to a run and then a double by Wall in the seventh opened up a 6-2 advantage for DBU.

Landon Wilson came out of the pen in relief of Shaw in the bottom of the seventh and worked two scoreless frames, before allowing a run in the ninth.  With two outs and the tying run standing at the plate in the bottom of the ninth, Brandon Koch closed out the game by striking out Logan Sherer on three pitches. 

With the win, Koch notched his team-leading 12th save and is now five saves away from tying Chris Haney's school record of 20 career saves.  Koch is also just four saves from tying Ted Hebert and Clint Davis for the most saves in a single-season.

DBU HEAD COACH, DAN HEEFNER – ON THE PITCHING PERFORMANCE TONIGHT
"Joseph came out and did what you need your Friday night starter to do by coming out and giving us six solid innings.  I think in a different situation, he could have gone out there for one more inning.  I thought what Landon did was big for us as well.  We've worked Smith, Adams, and Koch pretty hard lately, so we needed to give them a break and Landon came in and did a great job out of the pen.  Their last hitter in the ninth has some pop and Brandon Koch came in and did a great job facing him and getting us the win."
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
10 – Hits by the number 1-5 hitters in the Patriot lineup tonight.
5 – Extra-base hits by DBU tonight.
12 – The last 12 outs Brandon Koch has recorded have all been strikeouts.
 
UP NEXT FOR THE PATRIOTS
DBU meets UNC Charlotte in game two of the series on Saturday.  First pitch is scheduled for 1:00 pm (CST).