How Coastal Carolina baseball’s first loss came down to the nitty-gritty
Both Coastal Carolina and N.C. State worked overtime in defense of their unbeaten records Sunday at Springs Brooks Stadium, and the Wolfpack emerged as the remaining unblemished team in 11 innings.
Patrick Bailey’s wind-aided high home run down the left field line leading off the top of the 11th gave the Wolfpack a 7-6 lead and Kent Klyman set the Chanticleers down in the bottom of the inning, stranding a pair of runners in scoring position.
The Chanticleers (7-1) were looking to start a season 8-0 for the third time in program history, the last in 2007, and they squandered chances for walk-off wins in the ninth, 10th and 11th innings, stranding seven runners combined in the three innings.
“Late in the game we basically imploded on ourselves,” CCU head coach Gary Gilmore said. “They semi-handed us the opportunity to win and we kind of gagged and choked on it.”
Kieton Rivers got the only hit off Dalton Feeney in his four-plus innings of work by beating out an infield single on a grounder to third base to start the ninth and Jake Wright walked.
After Keaton Weisz popped out on a bunt attempt and pinch runner Morgan Hyde was forced out at second on a ground ball without sliding on a close play, Klyman struck out Cory Wood to end the threat and force extra innings.
“It’s something we work on awful hard, all of those little things like that, and to not respond in that situation is frustrating,” Gilmore said. “The one thing about our game, we can sit here and practice and I can make a guy bunt or I can make a guy slide or I can make a guy do a million things like that, and we do a lot of that stuff.
“But until you’re in a real game and now the opposing pitcher is doing everything he can to get you out and people are screaming and hollering, the game speeds up on guys at times and today we let it speed up on us a little bit and didn’t execute a couple times, and at the end of the day it ended up costing us.”
The Chants loaded the bases in the 10th after Cameron Pearcey reached second base on a throwing error leading off the inning and both Kyle Skeels and Kieton Rivers were hit by pitches, but Hyde struck out to end the inning.
In the 11th, Scott McKeon and Wood both singled with one out. Following a ground ball out, Zach Biermann popped out to right field to strand runners at second and third.
Both teams were facing their first opponent this season ranked in the top 25 by Collegiate Baseball – CCU is ranked 10th and N.C. State (7-0) is 22nd.
“We could be a lot worse off than 7-1. But it’s frustrating to walk in that locker room today,” Gilmore said. “The most positive part of the day is realizing how bad it bothers them that they lost the game. We will last a lot longer if we have a ton of heart and we battle and fight. . . . I saw a lot of faces in there of guys that this really bothered. They had a chance to beat a nationally-ranked team and we didn’t get it done. So hopefully we’ll learn from it and get better.”
Coastal was two wins away from matching its best start. It began the 1980 season 9-0 en route to a 38-10 season and berth in the NAIA World Series, and was last 8-0 in 2007 en route to going 50-13 and hosting an NCAA regional. The Chants lost their ninth game that season to N.C. State by the score of 4-0.
“To start off 7-1 is great but this loss is tough,” Wood said. “We had a lot of opportunities to go 8-0 which is just outstanding. But 7-1 really shows we have a pretty good team and we can put guys out there and compete at a very high level.”
Coastal built a 6-2 lead through four innings. Biermann hit an opposite-field solo home run to left-center in the first, Weisz pulled a wind-aided three-run homer to left in the second to give the Chants a 4-0 lead, and they added single runs in the third and fourth innings.
Parker Chavers manufactured a run in the third by walking with two outs, stealing second, advancing to third on an errant throw and scoring on a wild pitch, and McKeon doubled home Weisz, who had singled and stolen second in the fourth inning.
N.C. State, which got a two-run single in the third inning from cleanup hitter Evan Edwards, tied the game with four runs in a top of the fifth that began with a walk and hit batter and included an RBI double by Will Wilson, sacrifice fly by Bailey that chased freshman starter Garrett McDaniels, and two-run homer on a 3-2 pitch by Edwards off reliever Jay Causey.
Coastal relievers got out of several jams in the later innings. N.C. State loaded the bases with one out in the seventh but McKeon turned a double play at shortstop on a sharp grounder up the middle, and N.C. State had two runners on in both the ninth and 10th innings but Scott Kobos induced popups to end the innings.
In his second collegiate start, McDaniels, of Nichols and Pee Dee Academy, allowed five runs on six hits, a walk and two hit batters with a strikeout in 4 1/3 innings.
Causey, Matt Eardensohn, Kobos and Nick Parker combined to allow just one run over the final six innings.
The Chants plated five runs, including four earned, on five hits and a walk off sophomore lefthanded starter Nick Swiney, who is the Wolfpack’s No. 3 starter. But they managed just four hits off four Wolfpack relievers from innings four through 10.
“N.C. State’s a very good team and they ran their best guys out of that bullpen at us and really slowed us down,” Gilmore said. “We didn’t do a whole lot with them offensively. They kept chipping away at us and finally put an inning together. We just never were able to respond.”
This story was originally published February 24, 2019 at 7:06 PM.
