The rare outcome in Coastal Carolina’s game against defending national champ Oregon St.
The good news for Coastal Carolina’s baseball team Sunday night was it didn’t lose to defending national champion Oregon State.
The bad news was it didn’t win either.
In a rare outcome, the Chanticleers and Beavers tied 4-4 after 11 innings in a battle of two of the past three NCAA champions in the Seattle Baseball Showcase at T-Mobile Park, home of the Seattle Mariners.
The tournament had a time limit on games and no inning could start more than 3 1/2 hours from the opening pitch, so the game ended in a tie.
Coastal, ranked in the top 20 in several national polls, went 1-1-1 in the Seattle tournament, losing to San Diego 8-5 Friday and defeating Washington, which won the NCAA Conway Regional hosted by Coastal last year, 5-2 Saturday.
“The weekend was full of missed opportunities for us as a baseball team. The kids played hard against great competition,” CCU coach Gary Gilmore said. “ . . . We continue to search for answers to a few position player slots and how to create a workable bullpen that can finish games.”
The Chanticleers (13-3-1) took a 4-3 lead Sunday with four runs in the fifth inning and Oregon State (12-1-1), which is ranked No. 2 by both Perfect Game and the USA Today Baseball Coaches Poll, forced extra innings with a run in the top of the ninth inning.
The Chanticleers loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the 11th inning on an error by third baseman Jake Dukart on a slow-rolling grounder by Michael Koenig, lined single to center field by Kieton Rivers and walk by Turner Buis.
But left-handed reliever Jake Mulholland, who has 24 career saves, struck out Scott McKeon on a 1-2 pitch over the inside corner to end the game.
Oregon State pitchers allowed just six hits and two walks while striking out 16 and retired 18 consecutive batters from the fifth to the 11th inning.
Six Chanticleers pitchers allowed 11 hits while striking out 12 and walking five. Starter Garrett McDaniels allowed three runs and four hits in 4 1/3 innings. Matt Eardensohn pitched the final 2 2/3 innings allowing two hits with two walks and two strikeouts.
The Beavers took a 3-0 lead after three innings, as Beau Philip had an RBI single in the first inning and two-run double in the third.
Zach Biermann ripped a two-out, three-run double into the right field corner in the fifth inning to give the Chants a 4-3 lead. All three runs were unearned, as CCU took advantage of a throwing error on a sacrifice bunt attempt following a double by Rivers, walk by Jake Wright and RBI single by McKeon.
A Troy Claunch RBI single in the ninth tied the score after a Jake Harvey walk against Anthony Veneziano and back-to-back wild pitches by Bobby Holmes. The Beavers had two runners on base with one out later in the inning but Eardensohn enticed a ground ball for a double play.
On Friday, San Diego (12-4) scored six runs in the eighth inning and the game was halted after eight because of the tournament curfew. The loss snapped a five-game Coastal winning streak.
Coastal was held to a season-low four hits but took advantage of 10 walks and three hit-by-pitches and stranded 12 runners.
Leadoff hitter Cory Wood reached base four times and had CCU’s lone extra base hit against San Diego with a triple.
Sophomore starter Zach McCambley pitched five-plus innings and allowed two runs – one earned – four hits and three walks and hit two batters. The Toreros scored six in the ninth off relievers Trevor Damron, Alaska Abney and Eardensohn.
On Saturday, redshirt junior Austin Kitchen (3-0), who missed the 2018 season with an injury, threw a career-high seven innings, allowing two runs on five hits and one walk while striking out a career-high seven Huskies (8-4).
Jay Causey of Conway picked up his first save of the season, allowing one hit and striking out two over the final two innings.
Kyle Skeels was 2-for-4 with two RBI, Rivers had a double and three RBI and Keaton Weisz had a triple among his two hits.
“It was a fantastic weekend of baseball and seeing a different region of our country and its own local culture,” Gilmore said.
The Chants continue a 12-day road trip with a game at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Clemson (12-3), which is coming off a three-game weekend sweep of a North Carolina team ranked in the top five in the country. They then begin Sun Belt Conference play with a three-game series Friday through Sunday at Louisiana-Monroe.
This story was originally published March 11, 2019 at 12:15 AM.
