Beckwith making a name for himself with Chanticleers

Junior right-hander Andrew Beckwith might be more well known around Coastal Carolina’s campus by his nickname than his given one at this point, and he admits he finds it a little amusing at times.

“It’s definitely interesting to see people I’ve met before and they’re like, ‘Dap, Dap, Dapper, what’s up?’ I’m like, ‘I bet you don’t know my first name,’ and they’re like, ‘Yeah, you’re right,’” said Beckwith, whose popular Twitter handle is CaptnDap.

And yet the irony is Beckwith has actually made quite a name for himself in three years with the Chanticleers, stamping it – his full name, that is – in the program record books with two of the best single-season earned run averages ever posted by a Coastal Carolina pitcher.

His ERA of 1.33 during the 2014 season ranks second in the Chants’ Division I era, while he takes a 10-1 record and 1.79 ERA – which presently ranks fifth on that list – into Coastal Carolina’s NCAA regional opener Friday against Saint Mary’s at N.C. State’s Doak Field.

Those numbers this spring helped earn him both the Big South Pitcher of the Year Award and, as announced Thursday, Louisville Slugger second-team All-American honors.

All the while Chants pitching coach Drew Thomas has come up with his own alter-ego for Beckwith.

“I always call him ‘Melvin’ this year because he’s been so serious all the time, but he’s been on a mission,” Thomas said. “Him and Mike [Morrison] have been pushing each other all year, and I think that’s really helped the staff to say, ‘Hey look at these guys, this is how we do things around here.’ They’ve really took the reins with that stuff.”

Morrison, the team’s senior closer, and Beckwith are roommates on the road and have had a friendly rivalry going while each putting up stellar numbers this season.

Interestingly, they each had long streaks without allowing an earned run with Beckwith’s ending at 38 consecutive innings in a loss to Georgia Tech on May 1 and Morrison’s ending at 33 innings later that same game.

While Morrison has done it as the Chants’ shutdown closer, Beckwith’s role has been a little less defined. His impressive numbers this season have come from a mix of five starts and 15 relief appearances (which sometimes end up lasting as long as a typical start).

Chants coach Gary Gilmore would love to keep him in the bullpen as an option to bail the team out of any tense moments it may encounter, but then again, how can he not start his best pitcher?

So that’s the role Beckwith will play Friday as Coastal Carolina opens what it hopes will be a deep postseason run.

“We’ve never really discussed it that much,” Gilmore said of Beckwith’s versatile role. “... The starting has been out of necessity, not out of wanting to have to do that. I still think his best role for a really deep pitching staff would be as a bullpen guy who can pitch two or three times a week. But as a starter, he’s been fantastic as well. I think for him, he just wants the ball. However you give it to him, he’s gracious and ready to grab it and run.”

Said Thomas: “He’s never been on me about wanting to do this or that – he just wants to pitch. And I think that shows in the numbers that he’s [put up]. He doesn’t care how he gets it done, he just gets it done.”

Not only is Beckwith’s role versatile, but so is his pitching style as he leans on a deceptive sidearm delivery while also firing from an over-the-top angle at other times for extra velocity.

That came at the recommendation of his former pitching coach at Blythewood High School, Banks Faulkner, prior to his sophomore season.

The versatile pitching motion attracted Thomas, who previously had great success with even more dramatic submarine-style pitchers Ryan Connolly and Aaron Burke. As did the connection to Shawn Torbett, who was later Beckwith’s pitching coach at Blythewood and just happened to spend the previous season as the pitching coach at Gilbert High School, where he worked with Morrison.

“I saw him that next spring when I went to go see G.K. [Young] at the White Knoll tournament,” Thomas said. “He came up to me and told me he had another guy, and sure enough it was Andrew Beckwith. So it worked out.”

As Beckwith recalls, College of Charleston later showed interest and South Carolina reached out to him very late in the recruiting process, but by that point he was sold on Thomas, Gilmore and Coastal Carolina.

After going 3-2 with a 1.33 ERA in 29 relief appearances as a freshman, Beckwith was 6-4 with a 3.26 ERA in two starts and 25 relief outings last season and has already thrown a career-best 80 1/3 innings this year while doing a bunch of everything for the Chants.

His 2.15 career ERA entering this weekend is presently the best mark in Coastal Carolina’s Division I era.

“He’s been incredible inside this program, very committed and has really molded himself into the guy he is,” Gilmore said. “I think his greatest strength is he assumes any role you ask him to and he excels at it. He’s that guy, if we had close to what we had in 2010 with those two big dogs on Friday and Saturday, he would be one of the greatest complement bullpen pieces in the whole country. This team has needed him to start and he’s been exceptional in that role as well. I honestly don’t know which one he’s better in. ... He’s a unique and incredible young man.”

As for the nickname, Beckwith doesn’t offer too much clarity as to its origin other than to say it goes back to high school.

“About six of us buddies, six or seven, we all came up with interesting nicknames and I just changed my Twitter and Instagram and it just stuck ever since,” he said. “The guys on the team followed me freshman year and were like, ‘What is Dap?’ I was like, ‘I don’t know, it was my nickname in high school.’ They started calling me that and actually students at the school, people introduce me as Dap.”

Even his mother and girlfriend have Coastal Carolina jerseys with “Dap” on the back.

Beckwith’s teammates claim they can’t explain the nickname either.

“I don’t know the backstory. The first time I met him that was his nickname,” senior left fielder Anthony Marks said.

Added senior first baseman Tyler Chadwick: “He came in as Dap.”

And when he leaves, it will no doubt be as one of the more impactful pitchers to ever come through the program – a Chanticleer standout by any name.

This story was originally published June 2, 2016 at 6:48 PM with the headline "Beckwith making a name for himself with Chanticleers."