How CCU baseball knocked off West Virginia for another victory over a ranked opponent
Coastal Carolina head baseball coach Gary Gilmore has reasons to feel a lot better about his team this weekend than he did at the beginning of the week.
Coastal Carolina knocked off its third ranked opponent in eight days, and extended its win streak to three games with a 10-5 win over West Virginia on Saturday during the CCU Baseball Tournament at Springs Brooks Stadium.
The game was tied at 5 through six innings before Coastal scored two runs in the seventh and three in the eighth to pull away.
“I didn’t feel bad about the team, but there were like 8 million things we needed to work on to be better and I thought we made some great strides at Wake Forest [on Tuesday] and these last two games against quality competition, especially . . . [West Virginia] is right there at the top of the heap with that,” Gilmore said.
CCU hit four home runs for its largest power display of the season, including back-to-back shots in the fourth inning. Designated hitter Alex Gattinelli homered to left and catcher B.T. Riopelle became just the 11th player in Springs Brooks Stadium history (since 2015) to clear the 20-foot high “batter’s eye” wall at 420 feet in straightaway center field.
The Mountaineers, who are ranked No. 23 by D1Baseball.com and No. 22 in the USA Today Coaches Poll, fell to 3-3.
The Chants have knocked off Duke, Wake Forest 4-1 in 12 innings and now West Virginia since last Saturday, and all three teams are ranked in one or more of the national top 25 polls.
Coastal (4-2) was ranked 23rd in the preseason Collegiate Baseball poll but fell out of the rankings after dropping two of three games to Duke.
The Chants may work their way back in the national rankings if they close out the tournament with a win over Kennesaw State at 3 p.m. Sunday.
Coastal has eliminated mistakes and played more efficient baseball in its three-game winning streak.
After walking 18 batters and committing 11 errors in its three-game series with Duke last weekend, CCU has walked a total of six batters in 30 innings and committed two errors – both on Saturday – in its past three games.
“We’re getting better along those lines, we really are,” Gilmore said. “We have a goal every game and we’ve talked about it a lot with the pitching staff. If we walk three or less in a game our winning percentage is in the 90s over many years, so it’s interesting to watch that play out. . . . Any time we keep them at three or under, we have an incredibly high probability of having a chance to win, so that and we score seven runs, we shouldn’t lose many times.”
Nick Parker threw 4 2/3 innings and allowed four runs on eight hits with two strikeouts and no walks. He allowed just five hits and a run before allowing three consecutive two-out hits in the fifth – including two with 1-2 counts – to surrender three runs and fall behind 4-3 before exiting.
The bullpen was again solid, as freshman Luke Barrow and junior Shaddon Peavyhouse (1-1) did not allow a hit in their combined 4 1/3 innings and gave up one unearned run and three walks while striking out six.
The CCU bullpen has allowed two earned runs over its past 17 1/3 innings.
“Those last three innings are the three innings you want to win every time you play, so you’ve got to put some bodies back there that can get it done,” Gilmore said. “I was very pleased. I thought Barrow did a really good job and Peavyhouse came in and wasn’t as dominant as he was last week against Duke, but he didn’t give up any runs and I thought he did a great job.”
Coastal had 10 hits, with Nick Lucky going 3-for-4 to raise his season average to .448, and Eric Brown going 2-for-4 with four RBIs.
Brown’s first home run of the season to left field, a two-run shot, gave CCU a 5-4 lead in the fifth. West Virginia tied the game in the top of the sixth.
In the seventh, junior pinch hitter Tyler Johnson singled and scored on a throwing error by Mountaineers reliever Zach Ottinger on a sacrifice bunt by Dale Thomas, and Brown plated Thomas with a single to give CCU a 7-5 lead.
In the eighth, Thomas, a sophomore second baseman who had been 0-for-12 with six strikeouts this season, hit a two-run homer to left field to give CCU a 9-5 lead. A Brown sacrifice fly plated Makenzie Pate, who walked and advanced to third on a Lucky single.
“I was pleased with some of the things we got done today,” Gilmore said. “Some guys broke out and got a hit here and there and kind of got themselves going.”
In addition to his home run, Gilmore considered Riopelle the game’s MVP for his defense behind the plate.
“I thought Riopelle caught an incredible game,” Gilmore said. “He didn’t have one ball get past him all game. He had eight or 10 just insanely tough blocks today, and all the times with runners on base I thought he did a whale of a job behind the plate for us. I love offense, but that catching thing is so huge when you can keep the ball in front of you and throw a guy or two out.”
West Virginia has taken its lumps from the Sun Belt Conference this season, as it split four games at Georgia State to start the season, winning in extra innings and by a run while dropping one game in extras and another 20-4.
Coastal opened the CCU Baseball Tournament on Friday with an 8-1 win over Bryant that featured six shutout innings from redshirt sophomore starter Jacob Maton for his first collegiate victory and a grand slam by Lucky.
Sophomore righthander Casey Green, who did not allow a run in 4 2/3 innings against Wake Forest, will start for CCU on Sunday. Coastal next hosts the Baseball at the Beach tournament next Friday through Monday featuring Connecticut, Davidson and Miami (Ohio).
Due to COVID-19 protocols, attendance at Springs Brooks Stadium for baseball games is limited to 1,000 people, which includes participating teams, umpires, staff, media, etc., in addition to spectators. All of CCU’s games have sold out thus far this season.
This story was originally published February 27, 2021 at 8:23 PM.
