CCU Baseball Notebook: Chants see opportunity in three-game series at FSU

Riding a four-game winning streak and coming off a pretty thorough road victory against a strong UNC Wilmington squad earlier this week, the Coastal Carolina baseball team now faces its toughest challenge of the regular-season.

But also a great opportunity, coach Gary Gilmore said.

The Chanticleers are in Tallahassee, Fla., this weekend for a three-game series at No. 9-ranked Florida State, where they hope to turn some heads and further boost their growing resume and RPI.

“It’s a great opportunity. Heck, no one expects us to win any, so hopefully we can go down there like we did two or three years ago at Georgia Tech [and pull off an upset],” Gilmore said. “It gives us a chance to do some stuff. We’re going to have to hit and play great defense so we’ll have our hands full, but it’s an opportunity. That’s the whole reason you schedule like that.”

The Seminoles (33-13) are No. 9 in the Baseball America Top 25 poll this week, but they are ranked as high as No. 7 by Collegiate Baseball. The Chants (31-13) are unranked by Baseball America, but are still ranked No. 23 by D1Baseball.com this week.

More importantly, perhaps, is that Coastal Carolina has climbed to No. 24 in the latest RPI rankings released by the NCAA. Road games are weighted more strongly in a team’s favor, and with Florida State at No. 6 in the RPI, this is indeed a big opportunity for the Chants.

“We’ve got to keep this rolling,” junior pitcher Tyler Poole said. “Big series this weekend. If we do well, we can make some big noise in the rankings and everything. We’ve just got to keep it rolling.”

The Seminoles have won seven of their past eight games and are 25-3 at home this season.

They are led offensively by junior outfielder DJ Stewart, who is batting .324 with 10 home runs and 38 RBIs, and have five players with at least six homers.

“We’re look forward to it,” Gilmore said. “It gives us a chance to compete at a real high level and see where we stand.”

Optimism for Cunningham

Sophomore right-hander Alex Cunningham, the ace of the Chants staff this season, will miss a second straight start this weekend due to sore pitching arm.

But Gilmore remains optimistic that Cunningham (6-0, 2.64 earned-run average) will be able to pitch again this season.

“I’ve got my fingers crossed somehow we can get Cunningham back in some form or other, whether it’s starter, reliever, whatever between now and the conference tournament,” Gilmore said. “It would be a huge shot in the arm for us.”

Cunningham had made a strong return this spring after being sidelined since 2013 while recovering from a fracture in his pitching elbow. The pitcher underwent another test on his arm earlier this week, and Gilmore is hopeful the pain in his arm now is something he can rehab from quickly.

“At least what I’ve been told, there’s no new fractures, anything like that, so at this point in time it’s just controlling the inflammation he had in the area and hopefully here in the next few days he can be on a throwing program,” he said. “He may not be able to be a 75-100-pitch guy, but heck, [it would be great] if he can give us 50 ... just three innings a weekend, quality inning where you can hand a ballgame over to him at the end.”

Gilmore suggested Cunningham is still facing some lingering issues from the screws that were inserted in his elbow to help it heal from the injury that initially sidelined him after just nine appearances as a freshman and cost him all of last season.

But he’s looking at the situation optimistically.

“The pain was a little bit in a different area, but because of that injury where they put that screw in and took it out, the screw area has not completely healed. It’s still there,” Gilmore said. “I don’t think they really know if that is where part of the pain is resonating from, but I think part of it is mechanically the way he throws and stops his arm. It’s good news that there’s no new fracture, so hopefully somehow we get him back.”

Pitching matchups

Junior righty Mike Morrison (2-1, 2.68 ERA) is expected to start the opener Friday for Coastal Carolina with righty Boomer Biegalski (3-3, 3.12) going for Florida State. It will be Morrison’s second start of the season since moving from the bullpen.

On Saturday, senior lefty Austin Kerr (8-0, 2.22) will look to remain unbeaten for the Chants while righty Mike Compton (2-1, 1.94 ERA) goes for the Seminoles.

And on Sunday, freshman lefty Shane Sawczak (2-3, 5.40) will try to build off a career-best outing from last weekend while Florida State sends righty Drew Carlton (3-3, 4.69) to the hill.

Etc.

Coastal Carolina and Florida State have met 11 times on the baseball field, with the Seminoles winning all 11 at home.

This is not the highest-ranked team the Chants have faced this season. South Carolina was No. 7 in the Baseball America poll when Coastal Carolina defeated the Gamecocks on March 24 in Conway.

The Chants are also 5-1 against ACC teams this season and Big South teams are 14-15 overall against the ACC.

This story was originally published April 30, 2015 at 7:12 PM with the headline "CCU Baseball Notebook: Chants see opportunity in three-game series at FSU."