Chanticleers carry great expectations, potential into start of 2016 baseball season

The start of college baseball season in mid February each year often seems to arrive so suddenly, thrust in the midst of the conference basketball season and before most Major Leaguers even arrive to spring training.

But the anticipation for this 2016 Coastal Carolina baseball season has been building steadily for some time, back even to last June as the Chanticleers’ coaches and fans alike started looking ahead to the potential for a roster that would return almost every offensive contributor while adding an influx of much-needed pitching depth.

More so than the last few years at least, the Chants ride into their season opener Friday against Appalachian State on a wave of buzz, hype and booming expectations that can be felt by most everyone in and around the program.

“Oh yeah, we feel it,” said senior right-hander Tyler Poole, who will start on the mound Friday. “We’ve just got to stay humble and stay hungry, but yeah, the talk around the town, students [tell] me every day, ‘I’m excited for the season, y’all are going to be really good.’ We just can’t let it get to us. We’ve got to stay hungry and come out with a chip on our shoulder like we did last year and we’ll be fine.”

Added senior outfielder Anthony Marks: “I don’t think you can put it into words how ready we are. I think everyone, even the younger guys, have been champing at the bit to start this season up. There’s a lot of hype, but we’ve kind of been trying to not even listen to that and just go out and play our game. And I think we’re ready to do that.”

The 2015 season was one of rejuvenation for the Chants and set the stage for what coach Gary Gilmore has been on record as saying could be a “very special” 2016.

The program returned to the NCAA Regionals last year after a one-year absence, finished with a 39-21 record and established a foundation for the returning cast of veterans to build upon as the Chants aim for their first-ever College World Series berth.

They were picked No. 23 in Baseball America’s preseason rankings, placing in that preseason poll for the first time since 2010. And it’s easy to see why the Chants’ potential could be even far greater.

Every significant offensive contributor aside from catcher Casey Schroeder returns this spring to a lineup that will be headlined by junior shortstop and preseason All-American Michael Paez. He is coming off a breakout season in which he hit .326 with 17 doubles, a triple, eight home runs, 42 RBIs, 58 runs scored and 19 stolen bases in 23 attempts while also playing exceptional defense.

Marks also returns to the top of the lineup after batting a team-best .343 last year with 58 runs, a .421 on-base percentage and 17 steals in 25 attempts.

And junior designated hitter G.K. Young (.301 average, 9 homers, 49 RBIs), senior first baseman Tyler Chadwick (.303-5-35), senior third baseman Zach Remillard (.272-6-42) and senior outfielder Connor Owings (.270-9-48) give the Chants a wealth of proven offensive producers.

“No matter who’s playing, this offense is going to be tough to stop,” Marks said.

After battling persistent elbow issues in recent years that at times compromised his ability to throw across the diamond, Remillard says he’s 100-percent healthy and hoping to be a fixture at third base all season.

Meanwhile, there are still some position battles left to sort out.

After missing most of his freshman season due to injury, sophomore Dalton Ewing could be a promising addition to the outfield this spring.

Sophomore Kevin Woodall Jr. is challenging Chadwick for the job at first base.

There are a handful of candidates still in the mix at second, including sophomore Seth Lancaster, freshman Cameron Pearcey, freshman Kieton Rivers and sophomore Billy Cooke.

And senior David Parrett, who slugged 10 homers last season before struggling down the stretch to finish with a .239 batting average, is battling defensive-minded sophomore Matt Beaird for catching duties.

Gilmore noted the right-handed Parrett and lefty-hitting Beaird each offer their strengths, with Parrett bringing a little more to the table offensively and Beaird possessing the potential to be an elite defensive backstop.

“Beaird has a chance to be one of the better defensive catchers around,” Gilmore said. “The next two years, if he’s here two more years, he’ll be an incredible senior. And if he improves as much over the next 12 months as he did the previous 12, there will be a lot of people in here to see him next year.”

Overall, though, Gilmore says the Chants are far from a finished puzzle.

“Some of the questions that I have, some people have created competition in two or three spots that I had not foreseen in the beginning and it’s a little bit of the guy that started in the front has not put the job away and the guy behind has really closed the gap,” he said. “Maybe that’s good, but at the end of the day [there’s] still many unanswered questions at this point. And way more so than I expected to have.”

That extends to the pitching mound as well, but the added depth the Chants have with their stable of arms this spring may be even more significant than the offensive potential.

Junior right-hander Alex Cunningham (6-0, 2.56 ERA in 2015) says he’s 100-percent healthy after missing much of the second half of last year with arm trouble. Poole has worked to regain his mechanics and command after battling through a back injury that undermined his junior season. And highly-touted freshman righty Jason Bilous is set to make his collegiate debut Tuesday, after turning down a $600,000 offer from the Los Angeles Dodgers as a 29th-round draft pick last summer.

The Chants also add senior righty Adam Hall, a transfer from Xavier who can work as a starter or reliever, and boast a deep bullpen led by sophomore closer Bobby Holmes (4-1, 2.90), senior Mike Morrison (2-3, 3.97), junior Andrew Beckwith (6-4, 3.26) and senior Patrick Corbett, who is returning after missing two seasons due to a pair of arm surgeries. All of those guys are right-handed, but pitching coach Drew Thomas has said he’s confident in their collective ability to be effective against both righties and lefties.

All of that said, Gilmore is a coach not easily content and he doesn’t want the Chants getting ahead of themselves or buying into their own hype too much at this point.

Speaking before practice earlier this week, he was more consumed with the areas he feels still need a lot of work and refining.

“In some ways we’re not where we need to be,” he said. “There’s a lot of good pieces here, but also what I thought when we started that we would solve a lot of questions, I think we have more questions than answers at this moment in time across the board in some situations. It’s going to be interesting. We’ll see. With a veteran team, I think they’ve kind of gotten caught in this mode where we’re going to turn the switch on, we’ve done it before. But we haven’t won a championship here in three years.

“That’s the longest streak, probably one of the longest ones in the last 15-18 years. That’s something that’s on the forefront of my mind and where we need to be and what we need to do.”

For how thoroughly the Chants have dominated the Big South during Gilmore’s tenure, it is no small point that the program has not won an overall regular-season conference championship since 2012.

They know that’s the first step this spring before those other goals can become reality.

“As much as everyone wants to make it to Omaha and the farthest level, I think none of these seniors here – including myself – have ever won a Big South championship,” Marks said. “So I think that’s the main goal on my mind and all of our minds is taking care of business in the Big South and everything that happens after that is good for us.”

While he chose not to fuel the preseason hype this week, Gilmore nonetheless sees the big picture potential as well as anyone.

And he just hopes the Chants are ready for everything that will come along with that.

“I feel it,” he said. “It’s a lot different being the guy chasing than the guy being chased, and I’m trying to make them understand that. These guys have never been the one’s being chased. Their whole career this group has been chasing uphill to a large degree, so we desperately need to win a championship this last time in the Big South, and I hope we can get off to a good start. It would be nice to be in the mix at the end of the year to possibly play here.”

This story was originally published February 18, 2016 at 8:44 PM with the headline "Chanticleers carry great expectations, potential into start of 2016 baseball season."