Coastal Carolina baseball’s youth shows in doubleheader defeats

CONWAY -- To borrow from the classic Shirelles tune, Gary Gilmore said there’d be days like this, there’d be days like this, Gilmore said …

After an encouraging season-opening win on Friday night, Gilmore’s Coastal Carolina baseball team showed its vulnerabilities Saturday while dropping both ends of its doubleheader with a 9-3 loss to Virginia and an 8-3 defeat to Boston College.

The Chanticleers’ young pitchers were touched for four home runs over the two games, yielded 13 walks (12 against Virginia) and the team committed five errors (four against Boston College).

“I feel like I’m in ‘Twilight Zone’ right now, to be very honest,” Gilmore said when it was all done. “It’s been a long time since I had a day like this. It’s a whole lot of things. It [isn’t] one little thing, it [isn’t] one big thing. It’s a whole lot of things. The way we played today is the way we’ve been practicing.”

All was going well – or well enough, at least – through the first five innings Saturday.

Junior right-hander Josh Conway admittedly didn’t have his best stuff while yielding five walks, but he kept Virginia scoreless through five frames.

The Chants then grabbed a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the fifth on junior Bryce Dial’s no-doubt two-run home run over the left-center field wall.

But the lead wouldn’t last long.

The Cavaliers – a College World Series team last season – loaded the bases in the top of the sixth as junior reliever Aaron Burke yielded two singles and then committed a throwing error on a sacrifice bunt attempt. He was relieved by freshman Austin Kerr, who got a quick out but then walked in Virginia’s first run on four pitches. He struck out the next batter and freshman Patrick Corbett came in to get another strikeout as the Chants escaped further damage, but the Cavaliers were just getting started.

Virginia’s Jared King clubbed a three-run homer down the left-field line in the seventh off Corbett and Chris Taylor smoked a three-run shot in the eighth just inside the left field foul pole off another freshman reliever, Javier Reynoso.

The Cavaliers went on to score five runs in that eighth inning while cruising to a convincing win to move to 1-1.

Whit Mayberry earned the win for Virginia, allowing six hits and two runs over six innings, while King led the way offensively with a 3-for-5 day at the plate and four RBIs.

“They got a baptism under fire today,” Gilmore said of his team. “They got beat in virtually every aspect of the game.”

Unfortunately for the Chants, the night didn’t get any better after that.

Freshman left-hander Ben Smith got the start for Coastal against Boston College (3-0) and looked to have two quick outs in the first inning, but junior left fielder Ted Blackman dropped an easy fly ball. The Eagles followed with a two-run homer off the bat of Anthony Melchionda.

Boston College got to Smith again in the third with a solo homer by Tom Bourdon and in the fourth with a five-run outburst, chasing the rookie from the game.

Marc Perdios led off that inning with a hard grounder that took a tough bounce over senior third baseman Rich Witten leading to a double. Spenser Payne followed with an RBI double to deep center and John Hennessy drew a walk.

Smith followed with a strikeout and induced a groundball to shortstop, but freshman Brian Pruett couldn’t field the ball cleanly, loading the bases with one out.

The Chants’ retooled middle infield committed another error on the next batter as Matt McGovern’s very playable grounder to second went past junior newcomer Keith Picconi, allowing two more runs to cross to make it a 6-0 game. Bourdon added an RBI double to knock Smith out of the game, and Melchionda made it 8-0 on an RBI groundout against junior reliever Devin Bradley before the inning ended.

Hunter Gordon went five scoreless innings for Boston College, yielding three hits and striking out six to pick up the win. The Chants pushed three runs across in the ninth, including a solo homer by Picconi, but that didn’t change the disappointment Gilmore had when it was all finished.

He expected growing pains with a team full of young and new pieces – but not quite as many as the Chants experienced Saturday.

“I don’t know how the kids feel, but for anyone that’s ever been in this program, I’ll be honest with you – I give Virginia all the credit in the world, BC as well – [but] I’m just embarrassed by the intensity we played with. I’m embarrassed at times at the skill level with which we played,” Gilmore said. “It’s not a kid – it’s all of us. … I didn’t expect this. I expected a bump here and a bump there. I didn’t expect all four wheels to come off at one time.”

Notes

• Sophomore center fielder Jacob May left in the eighth inning of the Virginia game after an ugly collision with senior right fielder Daniel Bowman as both pursued a fly ball. Bowman held on for the catch, but May was down on the field for several minutes before walking off slowly favoring his shoulder. Gilmore said he was sent to the hospital, but he didn’t immediately know the diagnosis.

“He didn’t think it was dislocated. It was something about where the clavicle and shoulder joint connect or something,” Gilmore said. “[The trainer] said if that was it, we’re probably looking at several weeks.”

• Dial, one of many newcomers to the Chants’ lineup and roster this year, has a team-high three RBIs and eight total bases through three games. Asked about his homer Saturday – again, a no-doubter to one of the deepest parts of the ballpark – he smiled and said simply: “I hope to hit them a little farther than that one.”

• Junior left-hander Austin Wallace, another new addition to the roster, was another bright spot Saturday, picking up six strikeouts in three scoreless innings of relief while allowing just one hit against Boston College.