CCU Baseball Notebook: Chants hoping for more offense as they look to avoid elimination

Coastal Carolina baseball coach Gary Gilmore says his team may have bought into its own hype a little bit after stunning Florida in its College World Series opener Sunday night.

A 6-1 loss to TCU on Tuesday evening has dropped the Chanticleers into the losers bracket, where they now face an elimination game with Texas Tech on Thursday night at TD Ameritrade Park.

The Chants (50-17) haven’t lost consecutive games since May 1 when they lost the conclusion of a suspended game at Georgia Tech and then dropped the series finale that same afternoon as the Yellow Jackets completed a three-game sweep. Since then, Coastal Carolina has won 19 of its last 22 games and 16 of its last 18.

Gilmore has said this is one of the most resilient teams he’s ever coached, and the Chants will try to show that again Thursday against the Red Raiders (47-19).

“They’re in good spirits,” Gilmore said after his team worked out at an Omaha-area high school Wednesday afternoon. “I mean, I think when you look back at it we’ve just lost a little swagger. All you guys sticking cameras and microphones in our face and all of a sudden I think after Sunday’s game they started to believe in all the things that people were saying about them. We lost a little bit of edge, and on top [of that] we got beat by a very, very good team.

“We have to play with an edge to us and we were just a hair off the other night. Hopefully that kind of coming-back-to-Earth moment we had, not being able to get a win [Tuesday night] will resonate in a great effort [Thursday].”

At the very least, the players certainly believe in their resiliency and didn’t seem to be in any lingering funk with their season now on the line.

“We all have short [memories]. That was just one game. We’re on to the next,” said freshman pitcher Jason Bilous, who will get the start Thursday. “We’re not worried about it at all. We’re ready to compete the next game and do our best.”

Said senior left fielder Anthony Marks: “You’re disappointed just because you know you didn’t play your best game. That’s a good team, but I think if we give them our best shot it would have been a little bit closer than what it was. That’s why you’re disappointed. ... That’s why you’ve got to lose two times. One time doesn’t hurt you, and we’ve got a lot of confidence in ourselves for sure.”

While Coastal Carolina is making its first College World Series appearance, the Red Raiders were in that same spot in 2014 and have a number of holdovers from that team as they returned to Omaha this year – including the bulk of their key offensive contributors. That lineup has averaged 6.9 runs per game this season, but has scored only three runs in each of its first two games this week.

On the mound, meanwhile, Texas Tech has not announced a starting pitcher yet, but Gilmore is guessing it will be freshman left-hander Erikson Lanning.

Lanning is 3-3 with a 5.07 earned-run average in 10 starts and three relief appearances, with a pedestrian 33-to-16 strikeout-to-walk ratio over 49 2/3 innings.

But he pitched seven shutout innings while allowing only two hits and two walks with six strikeouts in the Red Raiders’ NCAA super regional clincher against East Carolina.

“They’re somewhat similar to Texas Christian other than they don’t have the experience and the depth on the pitching end of it. They’ve got a lot of young kids, but very talented,” Gilmore said. “I assume they’re going to throw their left-hander at us, a young kid who’s got very good stuff. I haven’t heard for sure, but that’s what I’m assuming is going to happen. As much as anything, I’m just concerned about our team. If we deal with ourselves internally and come really ready to play we’ll be fine.”

Waking up the bats

No matter who is on the mound, Coastal Carolina simply has to find more offense if it wants to keep its season going after scoring a total of three runs through its first two College World Series games,

After hitting an NCAA Division I-best 94 home runs, the Chants have not gone deep yet this week and Gilmore has been candid in admitting that the spacious dimensions in TD Ameritrade Park have had an effect on his team.

So too have the Chants’ base-running mistakes to this point.

“With the runs at such a premium, a lot of those things get overlooked when you play at Springs Brooks Stadium and can hit home runs and things. In this place, it’s like playing at Pelicans [Ballpark] – every minor mistake you make is magnified tremendously,” he said. “We’ve got to capitalize on the opportunities we’re given and realize that most of the games are going to be relatively close games and they’re going to turn on a walk or an error. If we field better yesterday and do things defensively like we did on Sunday, it’s a 1-0, 2-1 game late. And we’ve got to take that with us and be better tomorrow.”

The Chants, who have averaged 7.3 runs per game this season, have left 16 runners on base through these two games while also having several others picked off, caught stealing or thrown out on a play in which they shouldn’t have been running.

There’s yet another factor too that can’t be understated as Coastal Carolina lost its hottest hitter during the super regionals with sophomore second baseman Seth Lancaster and his .444 batting average since May 6 going down with a knee injury.

“I think it’s very evident we miss Seth Lancaster and there’s nothing we can do about that part,” Gilmore said. “We’ve got a couple guys in the lineup that have done a lot for us all year that haven’t really got clicking out here and for this lineup to be successful those guys have got to step it up along with the other guys continuing to get on base and do things.”

Said Marks: “I think once we get some timely hitting it will spark everybody else in the lineup. They say the hits are contagious, so once we get hopefully a couple big-time hits it will be contagious the rest of this tournament. I think we’ve done a great job working two great arms on the mound Sunday and [Tuesday], we got their pitch counts up and I thought we battled really well, but we just haven’t come up with that clutch hit.”

Woodall enjoying his opportunity in the CWS

With Lancaster out and senior first baseman Tyler Chadwick sliding over to second, sophomore first baseman Kevin Woodall Jr. has gotten to start on college baseball’s grandest stage this week.

Of Woodall’s 12 starts this season, exactly half have come in the NCAA postseason now.

“It’s awesome. I got my first start in a while back in Raleigh and that was good, that was a nice atmosphere to play in, but here it’s electric, it really is,” he said. “Playing on national TV and everything, it’s a great feeling. ...

“It’s easy to lock in when you’re on that big of stage. The crowd is amazing. When it comes down to it, you’ve just got to block everything out, but playing in front of that big a crowd is really amazing.”

Woodall has played solid defense at first, but he admits he expects more out of himself offensively after going just 1-for-7 at the plate so far in the College World Series.

“I think defensively I’ve played well. Me and Chadwick have had a lot of fun over there, being that he’s played first. Some of those balls I’ve cut him off on he’s laughing about and stuff like that,” Woodall said. “I wish I could swing it a little more, but hopefully this next game we’ll go out and get them.”

This story was originally published June 22, 2016 at 8:08 PM with the headline "CCU Baseball Notebook: Chants hoping for more offense as they look to avoid elimination."