Chants have their way with top prospect Burnes

Earlier this week Coastal Carolina baseball coach Gary Gilmore said he felt there was a perception – one he didn’t believe himself – that the Chanticleers have struggled adjusting to better pitching in the NCAA tournament after playing their Big South schedule.

He felt Friday was a prime opportunity to change some minds on that matter as the Chanticleers opened the NCAA regionals against hard-throwing Saint Mary’s right-hander Corbin Burnes, who could potentially be a first-round draft pick next week.

And indeed, the Chants showed they were plenty up to the challenge.

After a smooth first two innings, Burnes ran into trouble each of the next three innings and was eventually pulled after 4 2/3 – his second-shortest start of the season – while leaving with a 5-1 deficit.

He ended up giving up four earned runs on five hits, two walks and a hit batsman while striking out eight and uncorking three wild pitches – two that proved especially costly.

“I just didn’t have it today,” he said. “The change-up wasn’t working. A lot of lefties in the lineup. It just wasn’t there so I had to battle all day and they got the best of me today.”

Burnes had come into the game 9-1 with a 2.23 earned-run average, .208 opponents’ batting average and 112 strikeouts over 97 innings.

Despite his team’s success, Gilmore was plenty complimentary of the highly-regarded junior prospect afterward.

“That was a hard-fought game,” he said. “I thought the Burnes kid was outstanding. He actually did some things to us, we thought we’d see a lot more fastballs from him. He commanded his change-up and breaking ball and made it really tough on us. I thought he did a great job.”

Truth be told, this isn’t the first time the Chants have had success against a potential high draft pick.

In their NCAA regional game in 2011 against Connecticut, they tallied nine hits and seven earned runs in a win against Matt Barnes, who was drafted 19th overall by the Boston Red Sox that year.

And in the 2013 they fared respectably in a loss to Oklahoma ace Jonathan Gray, getting nine hits and three runs (two earned) in nine innings against a pitcher who was taken with the third overall pick that year by the Colorado Rockies.

For his part, St. Mary’s coach Eric Valenzuela seemed to have plenty of respect for Coastal Carolina’s lineup.

“I thought it was a good baseball game,” he said. “Coastal’s very good, very offensive. Six left-handed hitters in the lineup, power, they really run, athletic, very well coached. So give the credit to those guys. They just beat us.”

Cunningham to start Saturday

Junior right-hander Alex Cunningham will draw the start Saturday night in the winners bracket matchup between the No. 2-seeded Chants and host N.C. State.

Cunningham is 8-3 this season with a 3.87 ERA, 84 strikeouts and 31 walks over 93 innings.

He struggled against N.C. State in the second game of the season, giving up six runs on five hits and two walks over four innings in an eventual 13-10 loss.

That was three and a half months ago, though.

“We’re going to hopefully get a good outing out of Alex and we’ll mix and match from that point on,” Gilmore said. “We’ll do whatever we need to do. Obviously, whoever we play it will be a big game for both teams. It’s pretty hot out there to have to play two on Sunday. And it’s one of those games where there’s a lot riding on it.”

After only using one relief pitcher Friday as sophomore Bobby Holmes was dominant in earning his third save of the season, the Chants have their top bullpen option in senior Mike Morrison and their only lefty option in freshman Austin Kitchen fully fresh for Saturday.

Speaking of Holmes ...

Holmes racked up five strikeouts while allowing only one hit over 2 1/3 scoreless innings of relief Friday.

He hadn’t recorded a strikeout in either of his appearances in the Big South tournament last week, spanning 4 2/3 innings, but he was nearly unhittable this time.

“Ever since we took him out of the starting role about a month ago, you’ve see him progressively get better and he was really good today,” Gilmore said. “He had really good late snap on his breaking ball and just throwing a ton of strikes. He was able to command it and expand the zone when he got ahead. That was vintage Bobby Holmes from a year ago, it really was. I hope we get that the rest of the way.”

Beckwith by the numbers

Junior right-hander Andrew Beckwith was sharp again Friday, allowing only two runs (one earned) over 6 2/3 innings.

With his 11 wins, he’s now tied for ninth on the program’s single-season list. Four Coastal Carolina pitchers have recorded 13 wins to share the record.

Beckwith also managed to lower his ERA a few points to 1.76, which remains the fifth-best single-season mark in the Chants’ Division I era.

He has allowed two earned runs or less in five of his six starts this season (while also making 15 relief appearances).

This story was originally published June 3, 2016 at 6:59 PM with the headline "Chants have their way with top prospect Burnes."