CCU Baseball Notebook: Cunningham progressing, possibly nearing return

Coastal Carolina baseball coach Gary Gilmore says the Chanticleers have received good news regarding ace pitcher Alex Cunningham and could have the sophomore right-hander back in action in the near future.

Cunningham has missed his last two turns through the weekend rotation due to pain in his surgically repaired arm, but he’s reported no soreness in recent light throwing sessions and Gilmore hopes he’s able to continue progressing.

“I think Cunningham is supposed to throw a bullpen on Tuesday. He’s played catch for two days with no issues and has been cleared to work his way back, so hopefully we’ll have some access to him next week,” Gilmore said Sunday.

After missing roughly one-and-a-half seasons recovering from a fracture in his pitching elbow, Cunningham has excelled at the top of the Chants’ weekend rotation this spring while posting a 6-0 record and 2.64 earned-run average over 58 innings.

It’s not clear yet if he’ll be able to resume a starting role this season, but Gilmore said it would be a boost for the team to get him back in any capacity.

“It may be short and limited, but hopefully by the time we get to the conference tournament we can use him,” Gilmore said.

Holmes honored by Big South

The Chants (32-15) salvaged their three-game series at Florida State over the weekend by winning the final game 4-2 following a pair of lopsided losses, and the star of that big victory was honored by the conference on Monday.

Freshman right-hander Bobby Holmes was named the Big South Pitcher of the Week after throwing 7 2/3 innings without allowing an earned run last week in appearances against UNC Wilmington and then-No. 9-ranked Florida State.

The highly impressive rookie racked up five strikeouts in 1 2/3 innings to close out a 5-2 win Tuesday against the Seahawks before coming out of the bullpen to throw six hitless and scoreless innings against the vaunted Seminoles on Sunday. It was a season-long outing for Holmes, who walked four and struck out two.

He was credited with the win to improve to 4-0 while dropping his ERA to a team-best 1.22 over 44 1/3 innings.

Gilmore has said on a couple occasions this season that he projects Holmes as a future No. 1 starter for the Chants.

Rankings

A 2-2 week, including big wins over a good Seahawks team and a top-10 ranked Florida State team, didn’t help the Chants much in the national polls.

Coastal Carolina remains on the outside of the Baseball America Top 25 for a third straight week after peaking at No. 18.

The Chants dropped a spot in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association poll to No. 26, were the first team left off the USA Today baseball coaches top-25 poll and dropped out of the D1Baseball.com poll after being ranked No. 23 last week.

Perhaps most importantly, though, the Chants did move up seven spots in the NCAA Division I RPI to No. 22.

Coastal Carolina is off until Friday, when it starts a pivotal three-game series with Big South rival Liberty at Springs Brooks Stadium.

“Pints for Pete”

Coastal Carolina assistant coach Joe Hastings has organized a “Pints for Pete” event Thursday at Handley’s Pub & Grub in Carolina Forest with proceeds going to ALS research.

Pete Frates, who is credited with inspiring the “Ice Bucket Challenge” awareness platform that became popular on social media last year, played for Hastings during his first year as an assistant coach at Boston College, and Hastings played for legendary Western Carolina coach Keith LeClair, who also had ALS, commonly known as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease.”

The event at Handley’s runs from 6-10 p.m. Thursday and is one of several taking place concurrently around the country and beyond.

“Anybody that’s there is not obligated to make any donation to ALS research, but we’ll have bucket and stuff set up [for donations] and there will be a table for T-shirts and gear,” Hastings said. “There’s one in Albany, N.Y., it goes all the way to Indiana, Portland, Maine, Toronto up in Ontario, Hamburg, Germany, Houston, Texas. It all happens the same day the same times at pubs and bars all over the country.”

This story was originally published May 4, 2015 at 7:16 PM with the headline "CCU Baseball Notebook: Cunningham progressing, possibly nearing return."