CCU Baseball Notebook: Chanticleers turn to Cunningham to start

From the time junior right-hander Alex Cunningham joined the Coastal Carolina baseball program, he’s carried with him significant expectations and the confidence from his teammates and coaches that he will get the job done on the mound.

He backed that up last weekend at Louisiana State as the Chanticleers clinched an NCAA super regional sweep, and now he’ll try to do it again in the biggest game of his life Tuesday night in a College World Series matchup with Texas Christian.

And he has an impressive opening act to follow after teammate Andrew Beckwith held top-seeded Florida to one run in a complete-game performance Sunday night as the Chants closed out a 2-1 win and advanced to this winners’ matchup with TCU at TD Ameritrade Park.

“He’s the guy. He’s been that kind of pitcher ever since high school,” senior teammate Tyler Chadwick said of Cunningham. “We remember hearing stories our freshman year about him throwing in the state championship game for Byrnes and going 150 pitches and pitch 150 was like 91 miles an hour. Ever since we got here we knew AC was the big-game pitcher, the guy we wanted on the mound in a big game.”

TCU (48-16) is making its third straight College World Series appearance while the Chants (50-16) have won 16 of their last 17 games to make this the best season in program history.

Cunningham, who held LSU to two runs (despite 10 hits) in 7 1/3 innings while taking a no-decision in Coastal Carolina’s clinching 4-3 win over the Tigers, comes into the game Tuesday night with a 9-3 record, 3.58 earned-run average and 91-to-34 strikeout-to-walk ratio over 105 2/3 innings.

“I’m sure he’s going to compete the same way he did at LSU in that situation, and he’ll give us a chance to win – no doubt in my mind,” Chants coach Gary Gilmore said.

Cunningham, a 28th-round draft pick of the Detroit Tigers who has said he will sign with the club once this College World Series run ends, will face a deep TCU lineup that boasts a collective .304 team batting average, six players with six or more home runs and eight with at least seven steals.

The veteran righty has some momentum of his own, though, having allowed three runs or fewer in six straight starts. Since the start of the NCAA postseason, he’s allowed just two runs over 12 2/3 innings.

“I think confidence is a great pitch to add to your arsenal,” Chants pitching coach Drew Thomas said. “I’ve seen these guys really, really grow as a group in the last two months and with AC it’s kind of been that way too. He’s made a lot of heavy pitches the last two weeks.”

Scouting TCU

TCU is expected to start Brian Howard, a 6-foot-9 junior righty who comes in with a 9-2 record, 3.29 ERA and 86 strikeouts with 27 walks in 93 innings.

He’s been at his best in the postseason. Against Arizona State in the NCAA regionals, he allowed just one run and four hits over eight innings while striking out nine and walking none. And in the Horned Frogs’ super regional clincher, he held Texas A&M to two hits and just one unearned run over seven innings while posting eight strikeouts and two walks.

“Ever since we started the conference tournament it seems like every pitcher we’ve faced has been locked in, and every pitcher we’ve faced has been an absolute battle for us, which has been great,” Chadwick said. “It’s been a lot of fun for us to be able to go from the team that was scoring eight or nine runs a game to being a team that has to focus on pitching and defense. And I think that’s been something we haven’t done over the last few years, and it’s been really special over the last few weeks to win games 2-1, win games 5-2 whatever it’s been where we haven’t been able to score seven or eight runs a game.”

They may need to score more than two run against TCU, though.

Offensively, the Horned Frogs are led by freshman Luken Baker, who is batting .380 with a .486 on-base percentage, 10 home runs, 15 doubles and 60 RBIs.

Baker clubbed a three-run homer in the top of the ninth inning Sunday to rally TCU to a 5-3 win over Texas Tech.

He has plenty of help, though. Elliott Barzilli (.347 batting average, seven homers, 47 RBIs), Dane Steinhagen (.309-7-50), Cam Warner (.307-6-42), Evan Skoug (.301-9-51) and Josh Watson (.279-11-44) help round out a lineup that has averaged 7.1 runs per game.

“They’re going to probably be a tad more overall offensive [than Florida] without the four or five first-round arms that we saw,” Gilmore said. “[TCU coach Jim Schlossnagle] is a good friend of mine, I’ve been friends with him for a long time and he does one of the best jobs in college baseball. I’m sure they’ll be well-schooled for us as well. …

“The majority of all those Texas schools, they swing the bat so we’re going to have to respond and do the same.”

Response from win and crowd support

The Chants just keep raising the bar this postseason, first reaching the College World Series for the first time in program history and then topping a vaunted Florida team in the first game.

As expected, the attention on the team only continues to mount.

“I’ve never in my life had so many text messages, but it’s awesome to know that many people are behind us and are pulling for us,” junior designated hitter G.K. Young said.

People have commented all week that Coastal Carolina has become a popular bandwagon team for locals here in Omaha as they are viewed as plucky underdogs, and Young said he did indeed feel strong support from the crowd Sunday night.

“That’s amazing to be in that big of a ballpark and have so many people on our side, and that can change the outcome of a game, having the crowd on your side,” he said.

Chadwick fine after getting beaned in helmet

After taking a blazing fastball off his batting helmet from Florida pitcher A.J. Puk – the No. 6 overall pick in the draft – during that win Sunday night, Chadwick said he was feeling OK overall.

While the impact of the pitch definitely left a mark, it clearly didn’t ding Chadwick’s sense of humor.

“Head feels good. I’ve got a little knot right here, but I was just thankful he hit me so I didn’t strike out four times. That was nice,” he said. “But yeah, 97 or whatever it was, you don’t have much time to react to that. But thank God, Easton makes some good helmets.”

This story was originally published June 20, 2016 at 8:17 PM with the headline "CCU Baseball Notebook: Chanticleers turn to Cunningham to start."