This key injury adds to Coastal Carolina baseball team’s uncertainty as 2020 season nears
Having lost 19 players off last year’s roster, Coastal Carolina’s baseball team was expected to have a lot of uncertainty heading into the 2020 season.
The bombshell news from Friday furthered that reality.
The program announced it will be without Parker Chavers until around May 1 after the outfielder had shoulder surgery in December. Chavers is one of the few position players returning who produced significantly last year, having been named to Perfect Game’s 2020 College Preseason All-America Second Team after hitting .316 with 15 home runs and 54 RBIs in 2019.
Chavers and senior shortstop Scott McKeon, who was drafted in the 21st round by the Detroit Tigers, are the only two returning starting position players from 2019.
“Obviously losing Parker is a big thing, with what he means to our team, what he means to our lineup,” McKeon said during media day Friday. “But he’s around here, he’s helping all the young guys.”
The injury adds another obstacle for a team that’s already had plenty of success in three years as a member of the Sun Belt Conference. The Chants won the Sun Belt regular season title in the first two years in 2017-18 and claimed the tournament championship in each of the past two .
If the Chanticleers are going to claim a conference title for a fourth consecutive year, it will be accomplished by a host of players who are new to the program.
Coastal returns just 13 letter-winners, and 20 players are newcomers.
“It’s a handful of guys who got a little taste here and there but never really have been ‘the guy’ out there at this point,” CCU coach Gary Gilmore said. “We’ll play more freshmen in my 35 years of coaching this time than we’ve ever played.”
Six members of the 2019 CCU team with eligibility remaining and two additional recruits in the incoming class of 2019 were selected in the 2019 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft in June, and seven of those eight players elected to turn pro.
Players with eligibility lost to pro ball were left-handed pitcher Anthony Veneziano, a 10th-round Kansas City Royals selection, second baseman Cory Wood (Pittsburgh Pirates, 19th round), outfielder Jake Wright (Pirates, 32nd round), infielder Keaton Weisz (Los Angeles Angels, 36th round), and catcher Kyle Skeels (St. Louis Cardinals, 36th round).
The signees who didn’t make it to Coastal’s campus are right-handed pitchers Michael Limoncelli of Horseheads High in New York and Nicholas Yoder of Rowan College at Gloucester County in New Jersey.
With extensive turnover and his injury woes, Chavers has adopted more of a mentor role until he can get back on the field. He said he’s been impressed with the newcomers.
“I’m very confident in our entire group, even our freshmen,” Chavers said. “They’ve come a long way since they got here.”
Four junior college players joined the program: Rowan’s Alex Gattinelli, a catcher with power, outfielder Fox Leum of Minnesota and Brunswick Community College teammates catcher Hunter Ashburn of Shallotte, N.C., and lefthanded pitcher Josh Jarmon of Clayton, N.C.
The Chants also have 14 true freshmen – both scholarship and walk-on players – on the roster including Conway right-handed pitcher Will Smith and Kyle Westfall, an outfielder/second baseman from IMG Academy in Florida who rescinded a verbal commitment to Texas Tech to join the Chants.
“Once those lights come on and we get out here, they’re not freshmen anymore,” said junior pitcher Zach McCambley.
One place the Chants have some experience is on the mound, so they may rely on the pitching staff early in the season to get the team off to a good start.
Coastal will be counting on seniors Scott Kobos and Jay Causey, juniors McCambley and Trevor Damron, and sophomores Alaska Abney, Shaddon Peavyhouse and Nick Parker to throw significant innings and pitch effectively.
Coastal also added right-handed relief pitcher Chase Antle, a graduate transfer from Bowling Green.
Gilmore expects the team to rely heavily on the pitching staff and what he believes will be a vastly improved defense in 2020.
“We’ve got to evolve back pitching-wise to the team we used to be, which is a very low ERA, high nationally ranked pitching staff with a high-ranked defensive team behind it,” Gilmore said. “We were neither of those last year. We were not good at either one of those. It’s something we have to answer the call to. If we do, I think we’ll create enough offense that we’ll win a lot of games.”
This story was originally published January 24, 2020 at 8:52 PM.
