Chanticleers hit three homers in big win over Liberty

The Coastal Carolina and Liberty baseball teams got only five innings in Monday in their series finale before the rains returned to wreak yet more havoc on the three-game set, but that was plenty of time for the Chanticleers.

The Chants hit three home runs and piled up the runs quickly on the way to a 12-1 rain-shortened win over the rival Flames before an announced crowd of 907 at Springs Brooks Stadium.

After losing the first game of the series, Coastal Carolina (34-16, 16-5 Big South) took the final two from Liberty (31-19, 15-6) and moved ahead of the Flames to take over second place in the conference standings – a game behind league-leading Radford –heading into its final regular-season series at Campbell.

“It was a huge win for us. We’re trying to stay competitive at the top end and at least be within striking distance if we can have a good weekend at Campbell and force Radford to really play,” Chants coach Gary Gilmore said. “I was really proud of the kids. They had some incentive to get in there and get after it today and they played really well. ... We’ll just leave it at that.”

Asked about Gilmore’s cryptic comment and what he said to the team before the game, junior Connor Owings said, “Playing Liberty is always a big series, and they wanted to get that third game in. And if they wanted to play us, we were more than happy to play them. We just wanted to come out and play to the best of our abilities as a team and it’s always fun to hammer somebody, especially Liberty.”

Owings was the star again for the Chants in the series finale, which had been rescheduled from Sunday’s rainout.

He slugged his fourth homer of the series, this time a smacking a grand slam to right field as part of an eight-run third inning, and finished the series with nine RBIs in three games. He’s up to nine homers for the season to rank third on the team.

“He’s been really locked in the last three days and we really need him to be that guy,” Gilmore said. “It kind of makes our lineup when he produces and does some things for us.”

Sophomore G.K. Young got the scoring started in the second inning with a solo home run to left, his seventh of the year.

In the third, freshman Seth Lancaster and junior Anthony Marks led off with singles and sophomore Michael Paez followed with a bunt single to load the bases for Owings, who teed off on an offering from Liberty’s Shawn Clowers and sent it clear over the fence in right to make it a 5-0 game.

“I’ve never had a stretch like this with the home runs,” Owings said. “Last year and a couple times this year I’ve really found a groove. But this year I’ve kind of been struggling up and and down and I really just want to find a groove and be consistent for us and help us win.”

Following Owings’ grand slam, junior Casey Schroeder later connected on a two-run homer to extend his team lead in the category to 12. And Lancaster tacked on an RBI single in that inning to make it 9-0 after three.

In the fourth, junior Zach Remillard added an RBI single and Lancaster knocked in two more runs with a single to make it 12-1.

Owings was 2-for-3 with four RBIs and two runs scored, Lancaster was 3-for-3 with three RBIs and a run, Remillard was 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run and Young was 2-for-3 with an RBI and two runs.

Liberty’s lone run, meanwhile, came on a solo homer from Will Shepherd in the top of the fourth.

Freshman Shane Sawczak (3-3) was otherwise solid on the mound for the Chants, giving up three hits, a walk and one run over four innings to earn the win.

Clowers (9-4) took the loss, giving up seven hits and seven runs over 2 1/3 innings.

A lightning strike in the area halted play after five innings and rains soon moved in as the teams decided to call the rest of the game off.

Notes

Due to having to play Monday and with a key Big South series against Campbell starting on Thursday, Coastal Carolina will not host Wake Forest on Tuesday as originally scheduled.

This story was originally published May 11, 2015 at 7:35 PM with the headline "Chanticleers hit three homers in big win over Liberty."