Chanticleers score 17 runs in season-opening rout of Appalachian State

As he led his Coastal Carolina baseball team through its final preseason practices this week, coach Gary Gilmore expressed some mild concern that the veteran-laden Chanticleers were in the mindset of waiting to turn on the switch, so to speak.

And that may have been the case, but the Chants were certainly operating at full power Friday in their season opener.

No. 23-ranked Coastal Carolina scored five runs in the bottom of the first inning, the first 15 runs of the game overall and rode a highly-encouraging start from senior right-hander Tyler Poole to a 17-2 win over Appalachian State before an announced crowd of 2,003 at Springs Brooks Stadium.

“That’s real big for us. All of this practicing and all this talk going around about how good we’re going to be, and we come out here and score 17 runs tonight, it’s pretty awesome,” junior designated hitter G.K. Young said. “It gets the chip off our back and we can go out tomorrow and relax – the first game’s out the way – and just play.”

Poole, who is looking to shake off a frustrating 2015 season that saw him yield more walks than strikeouts, was noticeably sharper in this one and ended up allowing just two hits, one walk and two hit batsmen while striking out six over five scoreless innings.

It was his longest outing since the end of his redshirt-freshman season in 2013 – the last time he was primarily a starter – and his six strikeouts matched a career-high, set twice previously in that same rookie season.

“I’m very happy. It’s great to get the first one under my belt,” Poole said. “I’m not going to lie, I was a little nervous going out there. I didn’t have my best stuff tonight, but I battled through it and it felt good after the first inning getting five runs and being able to pitch with a lead. All I had to do was really pound the zone. It definitely made it a lot easier.”

Like he said, he had all the run support he could ask for as the Chants piled up their most runs since a 17-7 win over High Point in 2012.

The offensive onslaught started when junior Michael Paez hammered the second pitch from Appalachian State left-hander Bobby Hampton for a double down the left field line. Senior Anthony Marks was then hit by a pitch, senior Zach Remillard dropped down a bunt single, Young followed with a sacrifice fly to center for the first run, sophomore Kevin Woodall Jr. walked to load the bases again and senior Connor Owings cleared them with a three-run double while taking an 0-2 pitch the opposite way to left.

Sophomore Billy Cooke made it 5-0 later in the inning on a sacrifice bunt and the Chants added four more runs in the third.

Freshman Cameron Pearcey, making the start at second base in his collegiate debut, blooped an RBI single to left, Marks drew a bases-loaded walk and Remillard punched a two-run single up the middle to make it 9-0.

Owings then made it 10-0 in the bottom of the fourth with a leadoff double before advancing all the way around on two wild pitches.

And the Chants stayed relentless with five more in the fifth on a two-run double by Young, a pinch-hit RBI single from sophomore Dalton Ewing, an RBI single from sophomore Matt Beaird – who had entered in the top half of the inning at catcher – and a sac fly from Cooke.

In all, 10 Coastal Carolina players notched hits and nine collected RBIs in the win over an Appalachian State team that finished 17-36 last season.

“It’s just confidence building,” Owings said. “Everything that we’ve worked on in practice, we were just putting it all together – applying pressure, running the bases well, short game, driving the ball in the gap. It’s just confidence building.

“It’s what the lineup’s capable of. Every day you’re not going to score 17 runs, but we’ve got a whole lineup up and down that is a tough lineup to face daily so hopefully if somebody is struggling, somebody’s not doing something, we have other guys who can pick up the slack.”

Owings was 2-for-2 with three RBIs and two runs scored, Young was 2-for-3 with three RBIs and a run, Remillard finished 2-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs, Cooke went 2-for-3 with two RBIs and a run and freshman Peyton Isaacson tacked on a late two-run triple for the final runs of the game.

Hampton took the loss for Appalachian State, giving up nine runs on six hits and seven walks in just 2 1/3 innings.

“I don’t want to jinx us, but I feel like we flipped the switch tonight and everybody contributed tonight,” Young said. “There’s not really anybody I can say that didn’t contribute. Even our young guys off the bench, they stepped up too.”

Appalachian State’s lone runs came in the seventh off freshman reliever Brandon Miller, who pitched two innings of relief before freshman Jason Bilous and senior Patrick Corbett closed out the win.

The crowd, meanwhile, was the third-largest regular-season on-campus turnout behind home games last year against South Carolina and Clemson.

It’s only one game, but it was quite a debut for a Chants team slotted in Baseball America’s preseason top-25 for the first time since 2010 and carrying surging expectations into this 2016 campaign.

They’ll look to build on this momentum while facing stronger tests the next two days with games against N.C. State on Saturday and reigning NCAA national champion Virginia on Sunday.

“It was good. It will be interesting to see how much of a different challenge it will be tomorrow and Sunday, but I think we did a lot of good things,” Gilmore said. “We executed a lot of things we’ve been working really hard on, and it was really great to see us not only get the runs in the first inning but to come back and continue to tack on. Guys that have been battling each other all spring, we got to get virtually everyone that’s eligible position player wise, almost everyone got in the game and most of them got at least two at-bats. ... It was wonderful to see all of that.”

This story was originally published February 19, 2016 at 10:03 PM with the headline "Chanticleers score 17 runs in season-opening rout of Appalachian State."