Gilmore hoping to minimize distractions as CCU opens Big South tournament

There’s plenty the Coastal Carolina baseball players could be thinking about this week as they try to compete for a conference championship and secure a place in the NCAA regionals despite having the team’s top two pitchers sidelined by injury.

But coach Gary Gilmore doesn’t want his Chanticleers to get caught up in the stakes or the obstacles that await them this week as they open Big South tournament play Tuesday morning in Boiling Springs, N.C.

“We’re just approaching it trying to minimize the thought process,” Gilmore said. “I want them to look at what’s straight in front of our face; not what’s going to happen on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, all of that. We get overwhelmed mentally right now because of where we’re at pitching-wise when we look at the big picture.”

The Chants (35-18) enter the Big South tournament as the No. 2 seed and open up against No. 7 Charleston Southern (23-28) at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday morning at Gardner-Webb’s John Henry Moss Stadium.

Meanwhile, on they had several players honored by the conference as the end of season awards were announced Monday.

Junior outfielder Anthony Marks (fifth in the league with a .355 batting average, second with 54 runs scored), sophomore shortstop Michael Paez (.320 average, seven home runs, 17 doubles, 40 RBIs, 15 stolen bases) and senior pitcher Austin Kerr (8-1, 3.36 earned-run average) were named first-team All-Big South while junior infielder/outfielder Connor Owings (.277 average, nine homers, 46 RBIs) and freshman pitcher Bobby Holmes (4-0, 2.10 ERA) were named second-team selections and sophomore pitcher Alex Cunningham (6-0, 2.56 ERA) received honorable mention recognition, as voted on by the league’s coaches.

Holmes was also named the Big South Freshman of the Year, becoming just the fourth player in program history to receive that award.

“He’s unbelievable deserving of it,” Gilmore said of Holmes. “He’s been one of the top freshmen that we’ve ever had. I tell you what, we wouldn’t be where we are with all the issues we’ve had without him.”

That was the good news for the Chants. The bad news is that list only further underscores the disadvantage the team is facing this week with Kerr (elbow) and Cunningham (forearm) still sidelined with injury. Gilmore did not specify what was revealed in the tests Kerr underwent last week, but he ruled him out for this tournament while leaving the door slightly ajar for a potential return later in the postseason should the opportunity arise.

“He’s not pitching in this tournament regardless. If it keeps us from moving on, it keeps us from moving on. We’re going to try [to overcome it],” Gilmore said. “Ten days down the road could be a different story. I don’t know.”

Freshman lefthander Shane Sawczak (3-4, 4.71 ERA) will start the first game of the tournament for Coastal Carolina while Charleston Southern is expected to counter with righty Evan Raynor (4-4, 2.71).

Gilmore likes the matchup for Sawczak with the Buccaneers usually featuring a handful of left-handed hitters in their lineup. The Chants did not play Charleston Southern in the regular season.

Matchups will help determine how he and pitching coach Drew Thomas decide who starts the following games as well.

Holmes, meanwhile, is being moved back to the bullpen after making two starts.

“We’re going to put Bobby back in the bullpen, which is really more where his mindset is at,” Gilmore said. “Hopefully that will help.”

The rest of the pitching decisions are the coaches’ headache to sort out and he doesn’t want the players thinking about any of that.

“They know without Cunningham and Kerr we’re extremely shorthanded starting pitching-wise,” Gilmore said. “I’m trying to take that mindset away from them as much as I possibly can. I’m going to try. We have to realize it’s one day at a time, one pitch at a time.”

Coastal Carolina enters the double-elimination tournament No. 20 in the latest NCAA Division I RPI rankings and with a bevy of marquee wins over ACC and SEC competition the Chants are hoping to return to the NCAA regionals after a one-year absence either by winning the Big South tournament and clinching an automatic berth or by receiving an at-large bid.

Again, though, Gilmore wasn’t in the mindset Monday to talk about what he feels the Chants need to do to ensure that happens.

“Just play good,” he said. “I honestly don’t know. We came here with the idea of not [just] playing ourselves into the next tournament. We came here with the idea of trying to win this thing. The deeper we can get into it the more they believe they can win a regional. I think that’s important.”

This story was originally published May 18, 2015 at 9:15 PM with the headline "Gilmore hoping to minimize distractions as CCU opens Big South tournament."