Queen City Sports Report
Welcome to the weekly sports roundup in the greater Charlotte area presented by The Sports Chief. Every Sunday, let The Chief be the one to catch you up on all the latest sports happenings in and around the Charlotte, NC area. We take a look at professional sports, as well as semi-professional, college, and high school. If you like what we’re doing, make sure you give us a follow on Twitter at @thesportschief where you’ll be notified of all our latest postings, and visit our website at www.thesportschief.com.
Professional
abc11.com
Carolina Panthers
Rookie camp began on Friday and the attention is on the draft class. But first, the Panthers still need to reach deals with four of their eleven draft picks. Those four are 1st rounder Jaycee Horn, 2nd rounder Terrace Marshall Jr., 3rd rounder Brady Christensen, and 3rd rounder Tommy Tremble. The rookie camp roster contains a total of 34 players total.
Charlotte Hornets
usatoday.com
We’ve reached the final day of the NBA regular season and the Hornets are sliding backwards. That’s the bad news. The good news is they have clinched a playoff play-in game spot. After losing last Sunday to the Pelicans, Tuesday to the Nuggets, Thursday to the Clippers, and yesterday to the Knicks, the Hornets are still tied for the 8th spot in the Eastern Conference with the Wizards and the Pacers. But that doesn’t really matter. Here’s why:
With a play-in format enacted again this year for the 7th, 8th, 9th, and 10th place teams, the Hornets need to win in this week’s upcoming play-in format. In this format, the 7th place team will play the 8th place team in a one-game matchup, with the winner advancing as the #7 seed in the playoffs.
The 9th place and 10th place teams will play each other, with the loser eliminated and the winner advancing to play the loser of the 7th-8th matchup. The loser of that game will be eliminated, while the winner will advance to become the 8th seed in the playoffs. The rest of the playoffs will continue as usual from there.
While a lot of people are critical of this play-in format, for good reason, it could work out in the Hornets favor this season, especially if they lose to the Wizards today. We will see what happens, but maybe they’ll snap this four game losing streak and get hot at the right time. Go Hornets!
Semi-Professional
Charlotte Knights
After losing five of their first six games of the season last week to the Gwinnett Stripers, the Charlotte Knights have taken four of their first five games this week against the Norfolk Tides (Baltimore Orioles affiliate). 2nd baseman Marco Hernandez led the way in yesterday’s 8-3 win, going 4-5 with a home run, 3 RBIs, and 3 runs scored. Through the team’s first 11 games, he’s leading in batting average with a very impressive .436 average so far. The Knights will host the Tides today for the series finale before traveling to Durham on Tuesday to take on the Bulls.
wccbcharlotte.com
College Baseball
charlotte49ers.com
This week’s final scores:
Charlotte 49ers (37-16)
Friday: Charlotte 9, Rice 6
Saturday (Gm 1): Charlotte 8, Rice 11
Saturday (Gm 2): Charlotte 6, Rice 4
Sunday: Charlotte 0, Rice 6
Davidson Wildcats (24-21)
Friday: George Mason 5, Davidson 3
Saturday (Gm 1): George Mason 4, Davidson 5
Saturday (Gm 2): George Mason 7, Davidson 8
Sunday: In Progress
Appalachian State (17-28)
Tuesday: East Tennessee State 10, App State 5
Friday: App State 2, Little Rock 1
Saturday: App State 2, Little Rock 4
Sunday: In Progress
High School
Another week and another wrap-up of high school state championships. This time we’re talking about baseball. Congrats to all the state championship teams across the state. They are listed below by class:
Charlotte Christian vs. Wesleyan Christian for the 4A state championship
Credit: Jonathan Aguallo/The Charlotte Observer
4A
Charlotte Christian over Wesleyan Christian, 2 games to 1
3A
Hickory Grove Christian over High Point Christian, 2 games to 0
2A
Wayne Country Day over The Burlington School, 2 games to 0
Garett