CCU Baseball Notebook: Bilous makes anticipated debut a few days early

The final few innings of Coastal Carolina’s season opener Friday were mostly anticlimactic after the Chanticleers scored the game’s first 15 runs on the way to a lopsided win over Appalachian State.

But then came an unexpected surprise.

Prized freshman right-hander Jason Bilous, who was initially slated to make his collegiate debut in a start Tuesday, entered as a reliever in the eighth inning of the Chants’ 17-2 win while picking up his first two strikeouts along with two walks in his only inning of work.

Bilous, who missed his senior high school season in Delaware after undergoing Tommy John surgery, was a 29th-round draft pick of the Los Angeles Dodgers last summer and turned down a $600,000 offer from the club while choosing to follow through on his collegiate commitment. He was ranked as the 12th best freshman prospect nationally by D1Baseball.com and could be a key to helping the Chants take another step forward this spring.

He’ll be eased into action, though. Friday was a good start, and he expects to maintain his scheduled start Tuesday while on a 50-pitch limit.

“I was told about four days ago if everything went right, if we had enough cushion, I would get a one-inning appearance [in the opener]. It was definitely cool, big change in atmosphere from high school to now, but I was having a blast out there,” Bilous said afterward. “I was just thinking, ‘Just get out there, just calm down, it’s your first time, throw nice and easy and throw strikes.’”

Bilous had said earlier in the week that at 15 months removed from surgery, he was feeling at full strength and had not been experiencing any pain – only some residual stiffness – after his preseason throwing sessions.

But it was just last weekend that he felt he had cleared the remaining mental hurdles in his long recovery.

“I’d say last intrasquad, Saturday, I wasn’t thinking on the mound, I was just getting up there and throwing and hitting spots. That’s when it started to get fun again,” he had said Tuesday. “[It was] more the mental aspect, I was overthinking mechanical stuff and if I threw a bad pitch it would get in my head. But now I’m just kind of relaxed up there and go pitch by pitch.”

He looked plenty relaxed Friday night.

His first fastball clocked in at 93 miles-per-hour on the stadium radar gun and he retired Appalachian State’s Beau Myers for the first out before issuing back-to-back walks. But he responded with consecutive strikeouts of Henry Davis and pinch-hitter Zach Santoro – on a slider and fastball – to escape the inning unscathed.

“I was just worrying about the runners too much and [catcher Tyler Chadwick] came over and calmed me down, so I got my mindset right and just pounded the zone,” Bilous said.

Corbett makes his long-awaited return

Bilous wasn’t the only Chants pitcher making a much anticipated return to the mound.

Senior right-handed reliever Patrick Corbett pitched the ninth inning Friday for his first collegiate outing since the 2013 Big South tournament. He had missed each of the past two seasons following Tommy John surgery and subsequent setbacks.

“It’s been a long time coming,” he said. “Going out there with a 17-2 lead, there’s not much pressure. ... It’s a great feeling going out there and doing what I needed to do.”

Corbett, one of the reasons the Chants see their bullpen as a strength this season, walked out to the mound accompanied by Eminem’s “Square Dance,” which starts with the lyrics, “People! It feels so good to be back.”

He yielded a leadoff double down the left field line to Appalachian State’s Parker Henderson before inducing a fly out and later a game-ending 4-6-3 double play to close out a scoreless inning.

“Right now my [velocity] is a little bit down, which is kind of discouraging. It’s a cold night out there tonight, I was 88-89 the other day, but like I said, I feel like my arsenal is where it needs to be right now,” he said. “But if I can get a little velo jump in the next few weeks ... I feel like that will give me a lot more confidence as well.”

Pearcey starts at second as rookie

One of the unknowns lineup-wise for the Chants entering their home opener was who would get the start at second base.

The somewhat surprising answer was true freshman Cameron Pearcey, and the rookie out of Bradenton, Fla., went 1-for-4 with an RBI and run scored in his debut. Defensively, he committed a throwing error early in the game, but he made three assists and later had a nice running catch on a blooper to centerfield.

“It meant a lot knowing that my coaches and my teammates had the faith in me. I’ve got the best teammates and coaches in the world, so it meant a lot,” Pearcey said. “I’m not going to lie, it was a little nerve-wracking at first, but once we started scoring some runs, got that going, it was just like I was eight years old again.”

In other lineup decisions, sophomore Kevin Woodall Jr. got the start at first base over senior incumbent Tyler Chadwick, and sophomore Billy Cooke got the start in centerfield while going 2-for-3 with two RBIs and a run scored.

Senior David Parrett and sophomore Matt Beaird both saw playing time at catcher, with the right-handed-hitting Parrett drawing the start against a left-handed starting pitcher. The two are expected to share the job this season.

Overall, Chants coach Gary Gilmore said the lineup remains fluid with ongoing competition and will likely be based on matchups as well.

“I think for me personally, the competition is wide open,” Gilmore said. “It’s wide open for innings, it’s wide open for positional stuff. Even though you have a veteran club, there’s only a handful of guys that have a track record of such that if they struggle you hang with them because they’ve shown they can do it for a while. And I think that makes us all better. If every kid comes to the ballpark thinking he’s got a chance to play and I can exercise that option at times I think it keeps the chemistry of our team at a much higher level.”

This story was originally published February 19, 2016 at 10:10 PM with the headline "CCU Baseball Notebook: Bilous makes anticipated debut a few days early."