Why Coastal Carolina’s baseball lineup will change a lot early in the season

With more depth than the team has had in the past couple years, and no injuries in the preseason impacting the roster, Coastal Carolina will likely feature several different lineups in its opening three home tournaments through the first week of March.

The lineup that accounted for a 10-8 season-opening win over Virginia Commonwealth on Friday at Springs Brooks Stadium was a rough draft for head coach Gary Gilmore, who will continue to seek the team’s most effective combination.

Gilmore said there are several players competing for jobs early this season who will likely see some action in this weekend’s Brittain Resorts Invitational and in next weekend’s Brittain Resorts Baseball at the Beach tournament.

Position players who are new to the team this season and saw action Friday were redshirt sophomore outfielder Jake Wright, junior infielder Scott McKeon and junior outfielder Morgan Hyde. Other newcomers who are expected to soon get a look include redshirt sophomore outfielder Jared Johnson and freshman infielder Nick Lucky, who was drafted in the 14th round of the 2018 Major League Baseball Draft.

“This is just where we’re starting in Game 1,” Gilmore said. “We have a lot of guys still competing for jobs and we’ll do our best to try to use matchups and get guys in the game and kind of figure out who ultimately is going to win some of those jobs. Right now there are several up in the air. Between this weekend and the end of next weekend I expect a lot of different people to get opportunities to play.”

The Chants are expected to be one of the top teams in the country this season. They are ranked in the top 25 in numerous national preseason polls and rankings and are as high as No. 12, per Collegiate Baseball.

Coastal needed a rally from an early three-run deficit to earn Friday’s win over VCU. The Chants trailed 5-2 in the fourth inning before taking a lead with five runs in the sixth.

Senior outfielder Kieton Rivers had a two-run single in the sixth en route to going 3-for-3 with three RBI to lead an 11-hit offensive attack.

“The first game emotions are high. We have to stay controlled, stay balanced and composed,” Rivers said. “We got behind in the beginning and found a way to pull it out towards the end.”

Sophomore Zach McCambley, who the Chants are hoping steps into the top spot in the starting rotation after coming out of the bullpen for 11 of his 18 appearances last year, had a shaky opening outing.

The hard-throwing right-hander from Pennsylvania allowed five earned runs on nine hits in 3 1/3 innings, striking out two and walking one while laboring through 88 pitches.

“For whatever reason he just didn’t have command of his breaking ball today,” Gilmore said. “He was behind in the count and couldn’t throw it for strikes. He got frustrated out there a little bit. You have to tip your hat to the opponent, the kid’s throwing 89 to 93 and touching 94 every now and then, that’s not the easiest thing to do, square that up all the time. They got some big hits and did some things to us.”

The Rams, who were picked by the Atlantic 10’s coaches to finish second in the conference behind reigning champion St. Louis, took a 3-0 lead in the second inning with a rally that began with a hit batter with two outs and the bases empty. McCambley hit a second batter in the inning and allowed two singles and a two-run double by Zac Ching.

A two-run opposite-field home run by sophomore center fielder Parker Chavers pulled CCU within a run, but VCU chased McCambley with three straight singles and a run in the fifth, and took a 5-2 lead later in the inning when CCU failed to turn a double play on a one-out ground ball with a runner on third.

A Rivers RBI single in the bottom of the fourth pulled CCU within two runs, and the Chants wrestled the lead from VCU in the sixth.

Kyle Skeels was hit by a pitch, Chavers walked and redshirt sophomore outfielder Jake Wright walked to load the bases. Rivers lined a two-run single to left, Keaton Weisz slapped a two-run single to right and Cory Wood hit a run-scoring double off the base of the wall in left-center field.

“It was good to see our kids get down and react positively,” CCU coach Gary Gilmore said. “Thank goodness we were able to scrap a few runs. I’m very proud of the kids. They didn’t panic and just kept scrapping and battling and we got enough knocks at the right time to get it done.

“. . . It was good to see some guys in the lineup do some positive things. The only big at-bat a couple of them had was when we really needed it.”

All-American senior reliever Matt Eardensohn, who was 7-0 last season, got the win by quelling the Rams’ bats in 3 2/3 innings in relief of McCambley, allowing a run on three hits and a walk with four strikeouts. Eardensohn threw 51 pitches – all but 18 for strikes.

“I knew [McCambley’s] pitch count was getting up there and I’d have to go in some point soon, but I knew I was coming into a tough situation,” Eardensohn said. “Those guys were grinding out at-bats for VCU and were running up his pitch count so I knew they were all going to be tough outs. Coming in there I was just trying to get out of that inning right there and work from there and start getting into a rhythm hopefully, and I did a little bit there.”

Lefty Jay Causey of Conway threw 1 2/3 innings and allowed two runs in the ninth after walking the inning’s first two batters, and freshman right-hander Alaska Abney of Lawrenceville, Ga., recorded the game’s final out in his CCU debut after entering with two on and two out.

The sidearm-throwing Abney threw three pitches – all strikes – and got a weak comebacker to the mound to end the game. “It was great to be able to bring a freshman in there at the end when the anxiety level was starting to rise,” Gilmore said. “We’ve been kind of grooming that kid. That’s who we expect him to be. I think he embraces those type of moments and he was outstanding.”

Chavers and Skeels had two hits apiece, and senior first baseman Zach Biermann ended a frustrating four-strikeout day with a no-doubt two-run home run to right field in the eighth inning to give the Chants insurance runs they ended up needing.

The Chants are hosting the four-team Brittain Resorts Invitational through Sunday, and are scheduled to face Maryland at 3 p.m. Saturday and Campbell at 3 p.m. Sunday at Springs Brooks Stadium.

Junior lefthander Anthony Veneziano, who was 7-1 with a 3.81 ERA last season, is scheduled to start Saturday and freshman lefthander Garrett McDaniels of Nichols and Pee Dee Academy is slated start and make his much-anticipated CCU debut on Sunday. McDaniels was drafted in the 30th round of last year’s MLB Draft.

Next week’s tournament features Michigan State, N.C. State and Kent State, and the CCU Baseball Tournament from March 1-4 features Connecticut, Northeastern, Illinois and Indiana and will be followed by a pair of home games March 5-6 against Wake Forest.

This story was originally published February 15, 2019 at 8:00 PM.