Chants keep rolling with win over Marshall

If there can be such a thing as a critical moment in a lopsided six-run win, it definitely came in the bottom of the fifth inning Friday for the Coastal Carolina baseball team.

A baserunner’s interference call at home plate on the Chanticleers turned a bases-loaded no-out situation into runners on first and second with two outs in what was then a tied game. The fans groaned and the players fumed over the ruling.

Once everything settled, junior Michael Paez came to the plate and laced a would-be RBI double down the third base line. The umpire called it a foul ball, though, and the fans groaned again while coach Gary Gilmore really fumed.

But Paez simply got back in the batter’s box and soon smacked another ball down the line – this time fair – as the No. 19-ranked Chants took their first lead of the game and started piling on from there for a 9-3 win over Marshall inside Springs Brooks Stadium.

“It definitely was huge,” Paez said. “I think it was a tied ballgame there and that slide Seth [Lancaster] had with the controversial interference call definitely got the game a little chippy. Definitely I knew that was going to be a big at-bat. The momentum was going both ways, the crowd was going pretty crazy too ... so I knew I needed to buckle down and get a clutch hit. So thank God I did.”

Paez later added a solo home run and finished 2-for-5 with two RBIs as the Chants improved to 3-1. Senior Zach Remillard went 3-for-4 with a solo homer and two runs scored and senior David Parrett chipped in a two-run double in the win.

No hit felt bigger than that two-out Paez double in the fifth, though.

“It was huge. Unless I’m blind that ball was fair. The kids have a saying, ‘The game knows,’” Gilmore said. “So a lot of times it’s amazing how that actually happens, for him to basically get an opportunity to drop the ball in about the exact same spot almost and get a double and get us some runs. We were fighting it. We came in a tad flat, there’s no doubt about that.”

Coastal Carolina had gone down 2-0 to Marshall (1-4) as the Thundering Herd scored an unearned run off freshman starter Jason Bilous in the top of the third inning and got a shallow RBI sac fly in the fourth.

Remillard then cut the deficit in half with his solo homer into the left field bullpen in the bottom of the fourth.

But after beating reigning national champion Virginia on Sunday to move up a few spots in the national rankings, the Chants weren’t expecting to be trailing Marshall halfway through the game Friday.

Then came the bottom of the fifth.

Senior Tyler Chadwick led off with a double down the right field line and came around to score when Marshall committed a fielding error on Lancaster’s sacrifice bunt. That tied the game at 2-2.

Sophomore catcher Matt Beaird then laid down a bunt that Marshall third baseman Tyler Ratliff smacked away with his glove thinking it was a foul ball. The umpire, managing to draw the ire of both sides in the innning, thought differently and it ended up as a bunt single. And when sophomore Billy Cooke followed with a walk, the Chants found themselves with the bases loaded, no outs and a prime opportunity to seize control of the game.

Senior Anthony Marks then hit an easy grounder to Ratliff that the third baseman fielded and fired home for the first out. Lancaster slid into the legs of the catcher, and while it’s unlikely he would have caught Marks at first, the Thundering Herd were granted an automatic double play on the interference call. As part of the rule, the runners who had advanced to second and third also had to return to their previous bases.

“I haven’t seen it on film, but just being out there the call was the right call,” Gilmore said after the game. “There’s a big emphasis on guys going straight into all the bases, especially at home plate. He was relatively close to being straight into the bag, but he also did a hook slide and got tangled up with the guy.”

Paez then laced the ball down the line, and Gilmore was so confident it was a fair ball that he was fixed on waving around the base runners until the umpire got his attention to say it was foul.

Thankfully for the Chants, though, Paez was able to do it again for good this time as the go-ahead run came around to score and another run followed on a throwing error on the play.

“We preach that we’ve got to stay in the moment,” Paez said. “When all that stuff happened around me, I was just [focusing] on myself, making sure I stayed in the moment, know what pitch is coming, stay focused and I did.”

The Chants then made it 7-2 in the sixth when sophomore Dalton Ewing delivered a pinch-hit sac fly to center and Parrett followed with a pinch-hit two-run double to left.

Paez’s solo shot in the seventh made it 8-3 after Marshall had gotten a run back in the top of the inning, and Marks drove home the ninth run the following inning.

“We started a little slow, definitely,” Paez said. “Coming off a game like Virginia and then coming in that ballpark, I know you can’t say ‘play to our competition,’ but we played a little bit low today and I’m glad we woke up. A play like that [with the interference call] kind of woke us up. I’m glad it happened. At least it woke up everybody else.”

On the mound, meanwhile, the Coastal Carolina fans finally got to watch Bilous – the team’s prized freshman righty – make his first collegiate start.

Fixed to a strick 50-pitch limit, Bilous only lasted 2 1/3 innings while showing a combination of both his youth and his great potential while yielding three walks, two doubles and an unearned run along with four strikeouts.

He struck out the first batter he faced, and after giving up a one-out double in the first inning he struck out the next two batters while working in the 92-93 mile-per-hour range with his fastball.

In the second, he worked around a leadoff double to retire three of the next four batters (including another strikeout).

And in the third, he gave up a leadoff walk and committed a throwing error on a pickoff attempt that allowed the runner to move up two bases before ultimately scoring on a bunt. After another walk, his day was done.

“His stuff is really good. Again, he’s a guy who hasn’t pitched in a year and a half in real games [due to Tommy John surgery] so there’s going to be a learning curve here,” Gilmore said. “But his stuff’s good. We just have to keep running him out there every week. Hopefully next week he can get three-plus full innings in and just continue to move. Our goal is by April to have him to at least 75 pitches where he can get through five innings, and from there we’re hoping the last month and a half, two months he’s a legit five-inning-plus starter for us.”

Senior reliever Mike Morrison (1-0) followed with 3 2/3 innings, giving up two runs on five hits and two walks along with three strikeouts.

Marshall starter JD Hammer (0-2) took the loss, giving up six runs (four earned) on six hits and three walks while striking out seven over 5 1/3 innings.

As for the offense, the Chants have now scored at least nine runs in three of their first four games.

And Remillard’s homer Friday was his third of the season already, putting him halfway to his career-high total of six from last year.

“I mean it feels great, but the biggest thing being here for four years is winning,” Remillard said. “It’s all it comes down to. No matter what kind of day you have, as long as you win that’s the main objective.”

The Chants continue the 17th annual Caravelle Resort’s Baseball at the Beach tournament by hosting Ohio State on Saturday afternoon.

This story was originally published February 26, 2016 at 9:07 PM with the headline "Chants keep rolling with win over Marshall."