How Coastal Carolina baseball fared in season opener with a slew of newcomers in lineup
The new guys got off to a good start on Friday in Coastal Carolina’s 2020 season-opener against UNC Greensboro at Springs Brooks Stadium.
With five newcomers to the Chanticleers program starting, including three true freshmen, the Chants used an eight-run fifth inning and strong start by junior right-hander Zach McCambley to defeat the Spartans 12-4.
Freshman first baseman Zack Beach was 3-for-3 with three doubles and four RBIs, and senior outfielder Morgan Hyde was 2-for-4 with a home run, three RBIs and three runs scored to lead the offense.
“I surprisingly wasn’t too nervous out there. Going out there and seeing everybody in the stands for the first time my legs started shaking a little bit in the first inning,” said Beach of the attendance of 2,391. “But then I calmed down a little bit after the first [at-bat] and felt good out there.”
McCambley allowed one earned run on six hits with eight strikeouts and no walks while throwing 107 pitches, including 75 strikes. He reached 95 mph on the radar gun and mixed in breaking pitches to keep the Spartans off-balance.
“I was very proud of Zach McCambley,” CCU head coach Gary Gilmore said. “He went out and pitched like a Friday night guy, threw a ton of strikes and kept us in the game and went late in the game. We only have eight healthy pitchers right now so we desperately needed him to be a guy to hold things together.”
The win was tempered following the game by Gilmore’s announcement that he has liver cancer and may leave the team for treatment during the season.
Coastal’s 25-year head coach, who is 62, had recently discovered from preliminary tests that he has a large mass on his liver and further testing over the past couple weeks determined it was cancerous. Gilmore said he plans to coach the team until his treatments begin, which hasn’t been determined.
With a few injuries to the pitching staff already this season, particularly in the bullpen, McCambley gave the Chants what they needed in the opener.
“Obviously we’re a little banged up right now. It’s on us to kind of have their back. At the end of the day those are our brothers,” McCambley said. “I was more than prepared to throw over 100 pitches. I’m always prepared for that. I’d like to think of myself as someone who can go out there and do that every Friday and get through 7 or 8 innings every Friday.”
Sophomore catcher BT Riopelle gave the Chants a 1-0 lead Friday with his first career home run over the right field fence in the second inning.
The Chants took a 2-0 lead in the fourth without the benefit of a hit, as senior shortstop Scott McKeon reached on an error, advanced to second on a groundout and third on a wild pitch, and scored on a groundout by junior outfielder Alex Gattinelli.
Coastal broke the game open with eight runs in the bottom of the fifth inning, which included a pair of doubles by Beach.
Hyde led off the bottom of the fifth by pulling a line drive off the foul pole in left field to increase the lead to 3-0.
Beach followed by lining a double down the right field line and freshman second baseman Brian Port was hit by a pitch. Freshman third baseman Eric Brown laid down a sacrifice bunt and pitcher Jake Lewis slipped while fielding it, then threw wildly to first base from a knee, allowing Beach and Port to score and Brown to advance to third.
A single by Gattinelli plated Brown with CCU’s sixth run. A Hyde single scored Gattinelli and McKeon, who was hit by a pitch, and Beach’s second double down the right field line plated Hyde and junior designated hitter Fox Leum, who had walked.
Beach added a two-run double in the seventh inning to extend Coastal’s lead to 12-2 before UNCG scored a pair of runs off freshman reliever Griffin Holcombe in the ninth.
“We had a ton of freshman out there today but we kind of saw everyone grow up in one game, I think,” McCambley said.
The Chants have two days of the Brittain Resorts Baseball at the Beach tournament remaining. They’ll face San Diego State on Saturday and Virginia Tech on Sunday, with both games scheduled to start at 3 p.m.
This story was originally published February 14, 2020 at 7:07 PM.
