Coastal Carolina continues hit parade, completes sweep of Stetson

Following consecutive days in which it posted double-digit run totals, Coastal Carolina bats remained hot on Saturday as the Chanticleers put the finishing touches on a three-game sweep of Stetson, 12-2.

Coastal Carolina pounced on the visitors from the outset, batting around in the opening frame for the third consecutive game.

“In all honesty, I’m pretty sure in (the first inning of each game of the series), there was an out we were willing to give that they didn’t take via the short game,” Coastal Carolina coach Gary Gilmore said. “It’s amazing when you get five and six outs in an inning, what you can do with if the hitters really compete.”

Coastal Carolina (16-9) has won nine of its last 11 games.

“We’ve had some ‘Come to Jesus’ meetings the past couple of games, just getting back to being a unit,” said G.K. Young, who was 3-for-4 at the plate and scored three runs on Saturday. “I think we got away from ourselves after the first couple of weekends and we got away from playing Coastal baseball.”

Anthony Marks led off the bottom of the first with a single, but was thrown out at the plate when he tried to score on a fielding error following a bunt by Michael Paez.

Paez ended up at third on the play and scored on a wild pitch by Stetson’s Jack Perkins.

Young then walked and stole second, scoring when Zack Remillard doubled off the wall. Following an out by Connor Owings, a Tyler Chadwick single would allow Remillard to cross the plate, giving Coastal Carolina a 3-0 advantage.

The Chants would continue to pour it on in the frame, scoring three more times before all was said and done.

Tyler Chadwick was 2-for-3 with two RBI and two runs scored in the game, and was 7-for-10 in the series with 12 RBI.

Young walked and stole second, then scored when Remillard doubled off the top of the wall in right center.

Connor Owings flied out, then Chadwick singled to score Remillard and put Coastal Carolina ahead 3-0.

Back-to-back singles from Billy Cooke and Seth Lancaster scored Chadwick, and Cooke and Lancaster scored on a Matt Beaird single to give the Chants a 6-0 lead.

Stetson got on the board in the top of the second, Jack Machonis’ single bringing home a pair of Hatters to cut Coastal’s lead to 6-2.

But as they had done all series, the Chanticleers continued to chop away at Stetson pitching, padding their lead before settling on a 12-2 result.

Remillard went 3-for-5 with an RBI and two runs scored on Saturday. As impressive was Chadwick, who was 2-for-3 with two RBI and two runs scored in the game, and 7-for-10 in the series with 12 RBI.

“It’s a long season and there's going to be ups and downs,” Remillard said. “Right now we’re sticking to the process, taking it pitch by pitch, and I think we saw some good results. We went about it the right way and competed hard.”

Starting pitcher Tyler Poole improved to 4-2 with the victory. The senior right-hander struck out six in six innings and walked one while allowing two earned runs on four hits.

“This is the first time this team all year we’ve pitched, played defense relatively well and hit extremely well,” Gilmore said. “We really competed in the batter’s box to eliminate some strikeouts. We got a ton of two-strike hits that we haven’t been getting.”

Coastal Carolina next takes the field Wednesday, when it hosts The Citadel. First pitch is at 6 p.m.

This story was originally published March 26, 2016 at 10:27 PM with the headline "Coastal Carolina continues hit parade, completes sweep of Stetson."