Why CCU baseball coach Gary Gilmore likens his team to The Riddler entering 2021 season
The Coastal Carolina baseball team was on the field again Friday, and it sure has been a long time.
The Chanticleers were able to hold a full practice for the first time since the 2020 season was canceled on March 12 due to the coronavirus pandemic, so it has been more than 10 months since the team congregated en masse on the Springs Brooks Stadium field.
“It was great to get back here. I know everyone was kind of just getting almost homesick from not being here to be able to play,” CCU junior pitcher Nick Parker said. “I know everyone was just itching to come back and just be around each other.
“For me personally and a lot of other guys I talked to, being away during that quarantine made everyone appreciate being here a lot more.”
Coastal enters the season with its usual high expectations, as well as the obligatory questions, with perhaps even more unknowns than normal because the team is so relatively young and inexperienced in part because the 2020 season was canceled after just 16 games.
No 2020 seniors chose to return to the program despite being given an extra year of eligibility by the NCAA — four signed with Major League Baseball teams — and there are just three players whose eligibility would be expended at the end of the season without the NCAA extension. CCU will be playing a number of teams with multiple fifth- and even sixth-year seniors.
Coach Gary Gilmore likens his 2021 team to The Riddler.
“If you were to ask me to put one moniker on this team, I would draw the biggest question mark I’ve ever seen and put it on this team,” Gilmore said. “Not because of the lack of talent, but because there are so many unknowns. . . . I’m extremely optimistic about where we can end up being, just how fast we’re going to get there, I really don’t know.”
CCU has a deep offense
As expected, the Chants lost four players with eligibility remaining to MLB teams last summer, as pitcher Zach McCambley was drafted, and infielder Scott McKeon and pitchers Scott Kobos and Chase Antle signed with teams.
Unexpectedly, they retained rising senior outfielder Parker Chavers, a 2020 College Preseason Second Team All-American by both Perfect Game and Baseball America and one of D1Baseball’s 2020 Top 60 college prospects entering the draft.
“That’s a huge shot in the arm offensively,” Gilmore said.
“We’ve got Parker Chavers and we’ve got some other pieces that I feel like if they had a chance to play last year and over the summer we could theoretically have one of the better offensive teams we’ve ever had, but there’s so much unknown. These guys haven’t played in a year.”
In addition to Chavers, junior catcher B.T. Riopelle, junior infielder/outfielder Nick Lucky of Pennsylvania and sophomore outfielder Makenzie Pate of Georgia are expected to have big years
“Makenzie Pate I think is an incredible outfielder,” Parker said. “If he gets one of those corner outfield roles, between him and Parker there won’t be many flies balls that drop out there. And Nick Lucky, he’s just a stud. He’s really good.”
Chavers added: “We’re super deep. We have a lot of talented players that are going to contribute for us this year. I think that’s one of the beauties of our lineup is we’re going to be strong one through nine.”
Pitching won’t be traditional
“This is the first team we’ve had in a while that doesn’t have an established Friday night-type heir apparent guy on the mound with experience, etc.,” Gilmore said. “With pitching there’s talent, it’s just how you put all the pieces together is going to be our biggest challenge.”
Coastal lost its projected No. 1 starter — Wofford grad transfer Reece Maniscalco — to an operation to move a nerve in his pitching arm, and he’s expected to miss about half of the season and possibly return in early April.
“If we can survive with a group of young kids for that long he’ll be a tremendous shot in the arm the last half of the season,” Gilmore said.
Parker will be a key starter, junior sidearm righty Alaska Abney is expected to close games, and redshirt sophomore right-hander Jacob Maton, who was drafted in the 39th round of the MLB draft by the Seattle Mariners out of high school and had Tommy John surgery in March of 2019, and senior righty Trevor Damron could be two of several pitchers who may have a myriad of roles, especially early in the season.
“Abney and Nick Parker both have to be our All-American candidate guys if this team is going to be good,” Gilmore said. “Nick’s got to be a good starter for us, give us innings and keep us competitive, and Alaska has got to be a rock-solid, lockdown back-end-of-the-game guy for us.”
Gilmore returns to the bench
Gilmore is returning for his 26th season at CCU after being forced to leave the team for cancer treatments before the third game of the 2020 season.
He is still being treated for pancreatic neuroendocrine cancer, but his doctors believe it is under control and Gilmore plans to coach the entire season, and then some.
“Seeing all he’s been through and the direction he could have taken that, he’s been one of the strongest guys I’ve seen,” Chavers said. “He’s been at the field every day, hasn’t missed a beat, dealing with what he’s dealing with on the side. You’d never know just looking at him or being around him every day, he’s here doing the job he’s always done, getting us ready to go. I know that drive and passion is still there and he still wants to win, and this is his home.”
Kevin Schnall, an 18-year CCU assistant, led the team to an 11-5 record in Gilmore’s absence before the 2020 season was cut short because of the pandemic.
Schnall, pitching coach Drew Thomas and assistant Matt Schilling — who have all spent at least 14 years on the Chants coaching staff and were part of the 2016 NCAA championship — are all in place again this season to assist Gilmore.
“I hope [retirement] is a decision I get to make and not one that’s given to me,” Gilmore said. “I plan on coaching this [season] and a few more. It’s not my choice. If it’s my choice then there’s no choice, I’m coaching for a few more years. I plan on being out all spring recruiting. I plan on doing my job. If at any point in time I can’t do my job, it’ll be time to retire. I’m not going to be a hands-off guy and let everybody else do my job for me.”
What is this team’s ceiling?
Once the coaching staff has had time to assess the players and determine starters and relievers on the mound, starters and positions in the field, and the batting order, Gilmore believes the team will be capable of a run.
“At the end of the day it’s all about this team grinding,” Gilmore said. “The real opportunity to get on a legitimate run and get after it for an extended period of time will be when Reece comes back and we’ve got about half the season under our belt and all these young guys have had a chance to get innings and at-bats.”
Gilmore said the Chants have some talented but young and inexperienced pitchers.
“I believe the position players have a chance to be very special, but even with that there are a lot of unknowns,” Gilmore said. “But I’d rather know we’ve got some good players and they just need to get some experience and learn how to do this and every single day they’re going to learn and get better, than to not have ability. We have ability. Just when is it going to all come together? I just have no idea. I’m hoping sooner than later.”
The Chants hope the 2021 season comes to fruition, unlike last season. Gilmore said only a couple team members have tested positive for the coronavirus, and he hopes the Chants will be able to play their 56-game schedule without too much disruption or even another season cancellation.
“We’re doing everything we can, doing our part, following our protocols and doing all that type of stuff to ensure as much as we can that we don’t have any issues,” Chavers said. “. . . Hopefully, we get through it.”
This story was originally published January 29, 2021 at 10:45 PM.
