Owings’ two homers power Chants past Flames

Connor Owings has slugged eight home runs this season for Coastal Carolina. Heck, he’s hit three this weekend alone.

But perhaps none was more timely or important for the Chanticleers than his second homer of the game Saturday.

That two-run blast in the bottom of the sixth inning helped the Chants overcome a potentially deflating mental mistake in the field a half inning earlier as they rallied back with a five-run frame to defeat rival Liberty, 7-4, on a rainy afternoon at Springs Brooks Stadium.

“That was great. Honestly, CO called it,” junior relief pitcher Brock Hunter said after the game. “He came into the dugout and he was like, ‘If this dude hangs me a curveball, I’m taking him deep.’ And sure enough, he sits on an offspeed [pitch] and crushed it. That got us going.”

To set the stage ...

The Chants (33-16, 15-5 Big South) had already opened the pivotal conference series with a loss Friday night to the Flames (31-18, 15-5) that left coach Gary Gilmore mostly speechless with frustration.

They then squandered a 2-0 lead Saturday with three early errors in the field and that aforementioned costly mental gaffe in the top of the sixth inning when Hunter fielded a comebacker to the mound from Nick Paxton with the bases loaded and one out. Instead of throwing home to start an inning-ending double play, he flipped the ball to first base for the second out as Liberty scored the go-ahead run to take a 3-2 lead.

Hunter, who said he lost count of the outs after entering the game earlier that inning, did bounce back to strike out the next batter Nick Salisbury and prevent further damage, but the game had already been delayed more than three hours at the start and with rain remaining a threat throughout the day there was no telling if the teams would get the full contest finished or how much opportunity the Chants would get to erase that deficit.

Fortunately for Coastal Carolina, Owings wasted no time rendering that miscue irrelevant.

After sophomore Michael Paez singled up the middle to start the bottom of the sixth, Owings delivered that two-run homer to right field off Liberty starter Victor Cole to give the Chants a 4-3 lead just three innings after he had crushed a long two-run shot down the right field line to stake them to their earlier lead.

“I was just feeling good at the plate and I was seeing the ball well off that guy,” he said. “He had been starting a lot of people off their second and third at-bats with offspeed. I just went up there and sat on it and I put a good swing on it.

“We’ve kind of been struggling a little bit. We didn’t play very well [Friday] night, we came out a little flat and I really think it got us going. It kind of jumpstarted us.”

Indeed, that clutch homer was just the start of a big sixth inning for Coastal Carolina. Junior Zach Remillard followed with an infield single, and as the rain picked up again Cole beaned sophomore G.K. Young and junior Casey Schroeder in succession to load the bases.

Liberty coach Jim Toman walked out toward the mound and expressed his displeasure with the umpires as the short burst of rain poured down onto the field. He decided to go to the bullpen and call on his expected Sunday starter Shawn Clowers, who promptly threw a wild pitch to allow another run in.

Junior Tyler Chadwick then followed with a bloop single to shallow left that plated two more runs as the Chants went up 7-3.

“The whole inning unfolding the way it did was very fortunate for us,” Gilmore said.

Owings, the team’s top hitter last season, has scuffled at times this spring, but he’s found his stroke of late.

His three home runs over the first two games of the series are his first since April 12 and he finished 3-for-4 Saturday with those four RBIs and two runs scored.

“He and [assistant coach Matt Schilling] went over some video stuff and found a thing he was doing different than he had been doing earlier in the year, and it took him a day or two to get back in sync,” Gilmore said. “But the one on the change-up he hit was a really pretty swing. It was really nice watching it from third base.”

Four total errors didn’t help, but Coastal Carolina’s pitching was actually pretty strong Saturday as well.

Freshman right-hander Bobby Holmes moved out of the bullpen to make his first collegiate start and went five innings, giving up six hits, two walks and one earned run (three total) in a no-decision. That is Holmes’ only earned run allowed in Big South play, spanning 23 innings.

Hunter (3-0) would earn the win, despite allowing two inherited runners to score in his only inning of work, and sophomore righty Alex Cunningham then made his first appearance since April 17, returning from a sore pitching arm to throw 12/3 scoreless innings while allowing two hits.

Gilmore said Cunningham’s arm didn’t feel right afterward, though, so he will be re-examined and his status is again up in the air.

“It’s very frustrating for him. I feel so sorry for him. The kid’s worked so hard and I don’t know if that thing just cramped up on him or what. We’ll see,” Gilmore said. “He was good for an inning, so I feel like the thing is OK. Just somehow the trauma of his throwing is antagonizing that thing in his forearm. I think it’s healable or doable so hopefully we can get him back by conference time.”

Cole (5-2) took the loss, giving up seven hits, a walk and seven earned runs in five innings while striking out six.

The Chants and Flames, who had won the last six meetings between the teams, are scheduled to wrap up the series with a 1 p.m. finale Sunday, weather permitting.

“Great win. Hopefully we can play tomorrow,” Owings said. “... We’re trying to win the series against a rival. We’ve been struggling against them a little bit lately, so hopefully we get back on that winning track against them.”

This story was originally published May 9, 2015 at 6:22 PM with the headline "Owings’ two homers power Chants past Flames."