Resilient Coastal Carolina baseball wins twice, forces winner-take-all against Duke

After a pair of wins on Sunday, the Coastal Carolina baseball team moved a win away from advancing in the NCAA Tournament.

The Chants defeated Duke, 8-6, in a dramatic matchup only hours after defeating Rider, 13-5. Coastal will face Duke again in the regional championship at 6 p.m. on Monday. The winner moves on to the super regionals.

“It’s hard to put into words how proud I am of this group of guys,” Coastal Carolina coach Gary Gilmore said of his team after the game.

Coastal wasted no time and got on the scoreboard first against the Blue Devils. With two outs, CCU loaded the bases and senior Graham Brown sent them all home with a towering grand slam to right field, his third homer in four games.

The Chants bats have come alive in the past three games with 16 hits against the Broncs on Sunday afternoon and 44 entering the evening matchup. The Springs Brooks Stadium crowd was engaged Sunday night too, with fans continuing their combative relationship with home plate umpire Mark Buchanan’s strike zone.

A surprise came when Jacob Morrison took the mound to start for the Chants. The freshman hadn’t started since May 5 after battling a forearm injury on his throwing hand. Gilmore said Thursday the freshman had thrown in practice and might see the field should the need arise.

The Chants had received excellent starting pitching over their first three outings this week, taking a no-hitter bid into the seventh inning against Rider. Senior Jack Billings had a perfect game broken up deep into Coastal’s win over Rider earlier in the day.

But Morrison loaded the bases to start the second inning, and CCU pitching Coach Jason Beverlin pulled the Michigan native. Morrison, who is scheduled to have surgery on his throwing elbow this week, was on a pitch count restriction heading into the game and not expected to go more than three innings. The Chants went to lefty Bryce Shaffer to get them out of the inning.

But on Shaffer’s first pitch, Duke’s Alex Stone hit a home run to put Duke up 5-4. Shaffer quickly calmed things and didn’t allow a run for the next five innings.

“My teammates picked me up,” Shaffer said. “I knew if I could just get out of the inning they’d go back in their and give me the runs.”

Shaffer’s performance gave the Chants time to respond, and in the fourth inning, leadoff hitter Payton Eeles delivered with an RBI double to tie it at 5-5..

Freshman standout Caden Bodine put the Chants up 6-5 with an RBI hit.

Derek Bender extended the lead with a two-run home run, as the crowd of 4,001 came unglued after the big hit. With the two RBI, Bender set the school single-season record with 83.

“I’ve been waiting my whole career to feel that feeling,” Gilmore said after the game. “We’ve had good crowds but that was one of the best. They were every bit as good as we were on the field.

Duke responded in the eighth inning with another solo home run from Alex Stone cutting CCU’s lead 8-6.

With one out, Gilmore called upon junior reliever Teddy Sharkey to close out the Blue Devils. Sharkey entered the game with 10 saves on the year. Sharkey got out of the inning despite a rocky start, and the Chants held on to win.

Conway Regional scores, schedule

Friday

Game 1: No. 2 Duke 12, No. 3 UNCW 3

Game 2: No. 4 Rider 11, No. 1 Coastal Carolina 10 (10 inn/)

Saturday

Game 3; No. 1 Coastal Carolina 12, No. 3 UNCW 2

Game 4: No. 2 Duke 2, No. 4 Rider 1

Sunday, June 4

Game 5: No. 1 Coastal Carolina 13, No. 4 Rider 5

Game 6: o. 1 Coastal Carolina 8, No. 2 Duke 6

Monday, June 5

Game 7: Duke vs. Coastal Carolina, 6 p.m.