Chanticleers dominant again while advancing to Big South semifinals

After watching his Coastal Carolina baseball team roll to a lopsided win in its Big South tournament opener Tuesday, coach Gary Gilmore said he hoped the Chanticleers could produce more of the same on Wednesday.

As it turned out, he just about got a carbon copy performance.

For the second straight day, the No. 2-seeded Chants were led by a dominant pitching performance, solid production throughout the lineup and a big home run from sophomore G.K. Young on their way to an 8-0 win over No. 3 Winthrop at Gardner-Webb’s John H. Moss Stadium.

That earns Coastal Carolina (37-18) a day off while awaiting a semifinals matchup on Friday against an opponent to be determined.

“It’s huge. We take it day by day. We’re really focusing on our plan and just executing,” junior Zach Remillard said of the strong start, which began with a 10-0 win over Charleston Southern on Tuesday. “Defense is a huge part, we had some guys step up in big spots and so far we’re playing good baseball. And we’re just looking to keep that rolling and focusing on our next game.”

The star on the mound Wednesday was junior left-hander Brock Hunter, who was making his first start in his 58th overall career appearance.

One of the Chants’ steadiest relief pitchers this season, Hunter adjusted well to the starting role while pitching a career-high 5 2/3 innings and giving up no runs, three hits and two walks along with four strikeouts against a Winthrop team (39-18) that had won its last 14 games against Big South competition.

“I’ve started a good bit over the summer so I’m pretty used to it. I found out last night. That’s about all the time I need, one night’s sleep. Not a big deal,” Hunter said. “... About the second inning I couldn’t really find it, I probably was thinking too much, and then I just said, ‘I’m going to throw the ball as hard as I can.’ And it started working out for me.”

With their top two starting pitchers – sophomore Alex Cunningham (forearm) and senior Austin Kerr (elbow) – out for the tournament due to injury, Gilmore and pitching coach Drew Thomas have needed to get creative on the mound this week.

So far, the results have been ideal with freshman Shane Sawczak throwing seven scoreless innings on Tuesday and Hunter following suit Wednesday while limiting wear on the bullpen.

Sophomore Andrew Beckwith followed with 2 1/3 hitless innings and junior Mike Morrison pitched a scoreless ninth to close out the win.

“I had no idea what [Hunter] was going to be able to do. Drew was very confident that left-handed pitching was the way to go in that situation, and he was really the only guy that we had left after using Sawczak,” Gilmore said. “It was huge for us to be able to get that out of him and the bullpen guys. We played great defense and to be honest it was a great team effort.”

Because along with the sharp pitching, the Chants were again dialed in offensively.

Facing Winthrop lefty Matt Crohan, who had limited Coastal Carolina to one hit over eight scoreless innings back in late March, the Chants collected 15 hits this time and scored in four of the first six innings to quickly build a comfortable lead.

Young, the big-hitting designated hitter from Conway who had gone deep in the first game of the tournament, hit his ninth homer of the season as part of a four-run fifth inning and finished 1-for-3 with two RBIs.

Remillard was 3-for-4 with two RBIs and a run scored, sophomore Michael Paez went 2-for-4 with an RBI and two runs, junior Anthony Marks was 2-for-5 with an RBI and a run and freshman Billy Cooke finished 2-for-2 with two walks and two runs.

“It’s amazing what you do when you have 36 hours in that hotel room there and I lock them in the room and I tell them that [their pitcher], we can’t get any hits off him and he’s better than we are. It’s amazing how they come out and play,” Gilmore said. “The difference between college and professional baseball is the emotion involved. The fact that we were completely, totally, 1,000-percent manhandled by Crohan at our place, that had a lot to do with the outcome of this game.

“These kids, they have responded all year to challenges and we set one out in front of them and they carried out the game plan.”

The Chants wasted no time providing run support for Hunter as Marks led off the bottom of the first with a single through the left side, took second on Paez’s sacrifice bunt and came in to score on junior Connor Owings’ double to right.

Cooke got things going in the second while drawing a two-out walk and scoring on Marks’ opposite field liner over the shortstop to make it 2-0.

And they then blew the game open in the fifth. Paez hit a one-out single to left, Owings walked, Paez stole third and took home on an errant throw from the catcher, Remillard followed with an RBI double down the left field line and two batters later Young clubbed a two-run homer off the scoreboard in right-center to make it 6-0.

Along with the power he’s shown through the first two games of the tournament, Young has been the team’s most consistent hitter of late while batting .419 over the last 12 games.

“I feel pretty good. The big thing is that my teammates have my back when I go to the plate and I don’t have any pressure on me to have to do anymore than I can,” he said. “... We’re swinging the bat pretty good. That’s just how we’ve been all year.”

Paez tacked on a two-out RBI with an infield single in the sixth and Remillard added an RBI single later in the inning to cap the scoring.

Crohan (7-4) took the loss for Winthrop, giving up 10 hits, three walks and six runs over five innings as the Eagles drop to the losers bracket of the double elimination tournament.

The Chants, meanwhile, have allowed only six hits overall through their first two tournament games.

They get a break and will play the second of the two semifinal games Friday against either No. 1 Radford, No. 5 High Point or No. 8 Longwood.

“The day off is huge,” Remillard said. “Being well rested, getting ready for Friday is definitely really important. Our starters both games have gone deep into the game, saved some bullpen arms. Guys are going to be fresh and I think going into that game we can get focused and get ready to go.”

This story was originally published May 20, 2015 at 8:33 PM with the headline "Chanticleers dominant again while advancing to Big South semifinals."