After a walk-off and a thriller, what CCU baseball learned in the opening series vs. Duke
Coastal Carolina began the baseball season with a number of questions because of the team’s general inexperience, and most of those same questions remain following the Chanticleers’ three-game opening series against Duke at Springs Brooks Stadium.
But the Chants knew one thing for sure going into the season: that redshirt junior center fielder Parker Chavers is a star.
And that was only reinforced this weekend.
Chavers hit a walk-off grand slam home run in the bottom of the ninth inning in the series’ middle game Sunday afternoon, and followed it up by going 3-for-5 with two runs, an RBI and stolen base in the second game of a doubleheaders and the series finale.
“That was incredible. We ask so much of Parker and . . . he was the only guy we wanted up there in that situation,” CCU head coach Gary Gilmore said. “I can guarantee you every guy on our team wanted him at the plate knowing they actually had to pitch to him, they couldn’t walk him and throw trash up there trying to get him to swing on his own. They had to go right at him and he kept fighting off good pitches.
“. . . Any time we can put the bat in his hands with the game on the line we’ll take our chances.”
The Chants, ranked 23rd in the country in the preseason by Collegiate Baseball, dropped two of three games, as the team’s pitching and defense did not hold up against a Blue Devils team ranked 16th in the country by Baseball America.
CCU’s 8-7 walk-off win was sandwiched between 12-4 and 10-9 losses.
Duke had 14 hits in the opener and 11 hits in the third game, and Coastal made 11 errors in the three games – at least three in each game – leading to nine unearned runs.
“We’ll continue to try to coach them up and we’ll see,” Gilmore said. “If I have to eventually go to a more established defensive team and play less offensively – I’m trying not to do that if I don’t have to, but I may have to.”
The grand slam was Chavers’ first hit of the season, as he had been 0-for-4 with three walks in the first two games combined. But with the bases loaded, Duke had nowhere to put him.
Chavers fouled off four pitches with a 3-2 count off righthanded reliever Marcus Johnson before lining a low and inside fastball well beyond the right field wall.
It was Chavers’ first hit in 637 days, as he missed last season while recovering from right shoulder surgery.
“It was definitely a special moment. It was definitely cool to get back out there and be playing again. It was a great moment,” Chavers said. “The guys in front of me did an incredible job that inning. I had a lot of really good at-bats there in front of me. That gave me an opportunity and luckily I put a good swing on it and it went over the fence.
“. . . That was a big win for us to get that first [win] out of the way.”
Defensively, Chavers added a catch while sailing into the center field wall Saturday and a sliding catch on a shallow fly on Sunday.
Both of Sunday’s games were suspenseful, as Coastal left the tying and winning run on base in the finale after having the potential tying run thrown out at the plate in the ninth.
“After Saturday’s less-than-stellar performance to come out and compete the way they did today I was proud of the kids,” Gilmore said. “It didn’t work out the way we wanted it to at the end of that second game, but we competed, we never quit, and I’ll take a team that wants to compete and won’t roll over and die. I’ll take that team every day, and we’ll keep getting better.”
The Chants opened up a 5-0 lead in the first inning of the series finale, and tied the game at 8 with three runs in the eighth inning, but they couldn’t hold off the Blue Devils, who scored four runs in the second and two in the third to take the lead, then regained the lead with two runs in the top of the eighth.
In the bottom of the ninth, Coastal scored a run and had two runners on base with no outs following two walks, a hit batter and two passed balls. But pinch runner Makenzie Pate, representing the tying run, was thrown out at the plate on a close play by freshman reliever Josh Allen while trying to score on a bunt.
Allen then struck out sophomore Tanner Garrison and junior Lorenzo Morello to end the game.
CCU junior righthander Nick Parker teamed with junior lefty Reid VanScoter, who missed last season with an injury and returned for three innings Sunday, and junior Alaska Abney to hold Duke to six hits in the 8-7 win. Parker threw five innings and allowed three runs – two earned – on two hits and two walks with four strikeouts.
“I thought Nick did a good job,” Gilmore said. “He and VanScoter came in and he threw two really good innings. We extended [VanScoter] beyond really what we had been practicing as far as number of innings. His pitch total wasn’t bad. But I thought he and Nick did a great job giving us an opportunity to stay in that game.”
After being held to three hits and seven walks in Saturday’s opener, Coastal responded with 10 hits, four walks and two hit batters in its win, and seven hits, eight walks and four hit batters in the nightcap.
Senior outfielder and designated hitter Alex Gattinelli was 4-for-6 in Sunday’s two games with a home run, four RBIs, two runs and two walks.
Junior Nick Lucky had four hits on the weekend, and Morello was 2-for-4 in the second game with a run and RBI.
Coastal (1-2) has just one day off before it travels to face another ranked team in Wake Forest (2-1), which is ranked 17th by D1Baseball, at 4 p.m. on Tuesday.
“I think we have a really good group. I really do,” Chavers said. “I think our lineup has a chance to be really dynamic and really deep. Even guys that aren’t necessarily starting, coming off the bench we have a lot of depth in that aspect, which I don’t think we’ve necessarily had in the past. I think going through the season that’s only going to help us. . . . I think we’ll be fine.”
This story was originally published February 21, 2021 at 11:07 PM.
