CCU Baseball Notebook: Crump maximizes opportunity in key spot

For most of the regular season, freshman outfielder Josh Crump was more or less an extra piece for Coastal Carolina baseball coach Gary Gilmore to work into the mix here or there.

But the rookie has been a lot more than that for the Chanticleers in the Big South tournament this week.

Crump went 2-for-4 with a run scored and two RBIs on Friday in the Chants’ 9-3 win over High Point in the tournament semifinals at Gardner-Webb’s John Henry Moss Stadium. And after making only eight starts in the regular season, he’s started two of the three games this week while totaling four hits in nine at-bats.

“Honestly, I just knew coming in that I was just going to play my role and contribute somehow to try to get a Big South championship, which is why I came here,” he said Friday. “Just to be able to do this with my teammates is a great feeling.”

While the Chants (38-18) won convincingly Friday, Crump’s first RBI of the day came at a rather pivotal point in the game.

Coastal Carolina was down 2-0 in the bottom of the second inning and had gotten a lead-off double from junior Casey Schroeder. But after a sacrifice bunt to move him to third and a strikeout, the Chants were in danger of getting nothing out of the scoring opportunity before Crump came through with a hard RBI single up the middle.

“Honestly, it felt so good,” he said. “Going through my head at the moment, I’m just thinking I’m in a big spot, I know I’ve got to show up for my team and help us win this game.”

For the season, Crump is batting a modest .235 with nine RBIs in 51 at-bats, but he’s earning Gilmore’s trust down the stretch. Same goes for freshman Seth Lancaster, who started at second base on Friday and produced a two-run double.

“He’s really stepped up. He’s grown up a lot here. He and [Billy] Cooke and Lancaster and some of those guys that have been playing, they’ve really grown up as young men here in the last month,” Gilmore said. “They’ve been kind of hit and miss along the way, but I throw BP to them everyday and they’ve been as locked in as about anybody on the team swinging the bat and really having mental focus up there.”

Crump, a product of Rock Hill, said much of the same.

“I’ve grown so much as a baseball player, as a person surrounded by a great group of guys and a great coaching staff,” he said. “So I’m just lucky to be here.”

Remillard hurting

Junior third baseman Zach Remillard has been dealing with renewed pain in his right throwing elbow lately and was replaced after four innings Friday with the Chants comfortably in the lead.

Remillard, who had Tommy John surgery on his elbow after last season, had played second base Wednesday, and Gilmore said it’s just something he must continue to monitor.

“It’s just wear and tear. It is what it is at this point in time. We’ll see about tomorrow where we’re at and what we need to do,” Gilmore said. “But that kid goes out there dying for us every day. It’s kind of like some of those other guys, it’s very frustrating for them and for us that their bodies are where they are right now. But there’s nothing we can do. I’ve got to have that guy well next week. He’s a big part of our offense.”

Pitching options

The Chants have several options in deciding on a starting pitcher for the championship game Saturday, but Gilmore was coy on which way he’s leaning.

“Probably Kerr for three, Cunningham for three and then we’ll go to Holmes,” he joked, referring to injured starters Austin Kerr and Alex Cunningham, who are both out for the tournament.

Holmes (4-0, 2.10 earned-run average) hasn’t pitched yet this week, but Gilmore said earlier in the week the coaches wanted to keep him in the bullpen. That leaves freshman right-hander Zack Hopeck (3-2, 4.33 ERA) and junior righty Tyler Poole (1-1, 4.55) as experienced starting pitchers who haven’t thrown in the tournament.

As for Radford, the Highlanders are expected to go with Mitchell MacKeith (7-4, 4.17 ERA). The junior lefty picked up a win against Coastal Carolina on April 19, going 7 1/3 innings while allowing four hits, three walks and one run.

By the numbers

The Chants lead the Big South tournament with a collective .417 batting average through three games and, perhaps more impressively, have held their opponents to a .163 batting average with just seven extra-base hits.

Coastal Carolina also boasts a 1.056 OPS (on-base plus slugging percentage) and is hitting .463 with runners in scoring position (19-of-41).

And the Chants will be playing in the Big South championship game for the 18th time, having won 13 titles in their previous opportunities.

This story was originally published May 22, 2015 at 6:10 PM with the headline "CCU Baseball Notebook: Crump maximizes opportunity in key spot."