Box Score Baseball Falls to Winthrop In Bojangles' Big South Conference Championshi More Information:
Ben Ehrlich broke a 7-7 tie with a two-run double to cap a six-run ninth inning as the No. 2 seed Winthrop Eagles defeated the No. 1 seed Coastal Carolina Chanticleers 13-7 in the championship game of the 2005 Bojangles’ Big South Baseball Championship Saturday night at Charles Watson Stadium/Vrooman Field on the campus of Coastal Carolina University in Conway, S.C. It is Winthrop’s first Big South tournament championship crown since 1999 and snaps CCU’s string of four consecutive Conference tournament titles.
The game featured nine pitchers, a 1:16 rain delay, three ties and six lead changes. Winthrop (43-20) jumped to an early 2-0 lead on back-to-back home runs from Heath Rollins and Daniel Carte in the first inning. It was Carte's fourth home run of the tournament and 18th of the season, which ties the school single-season home run record. Coastal tied it in the bottom of the first on a two-run home run from
Mike Costanzo. Winthrop regained its lead in the second inning, when Kyle Roberson doubled and scored on Ehrlich's single. It remained 3-2 Winthrop until the bottom of the fourth when
Aaron Verrett -- CCU's hero in Saturday afternoon’s first contest -- homered with two outs to make it 3-3. After the rain delay in the fifth inning, Winthrop moved ahead 4-3, only to see Coastal take its lead back in the bottom of the sixth at 5-4.
The Eagles countered with a two-run seventh inning, while the Chanticleers (48-14) fought back with two runs in the bottom half to move ahead 7-6. Winthrop’s Chris Carrara tied it in the eighth with an RBI single, and added a two-run homer in the Eagles’ sixth-run ninth. Eagles closer Jon Wilson (5-3) earned the win with 2.2 innings of scoreless ball, allowing one hit and striking out three. Reliever
Mike Andreas (0-1) took the loss for Coastal.
Carte earned Tournament MVP honors after leading Winthrop with 14 hits in 21 at-bats ( =.667), in addition to four home runs, two doubles and five RBI in WU’s five games. Joining Carte on the All-Tournament squad were infielders Costanzo, Carrara, Verrett and CCU’s
Michael DeJesus. Carte, Radford’s Kellen Wohlford and Liberty’s P.K. Keller were the All-Tournament outfielders, while Winthrop catcher Alan Robbins, Eagles slugger Jacob Dempsey (utility position), Liberty designated hitter Jeff Brown, and pitchers
Mike Valter (CCU), Heath Rollins (WU),
Ricky Shefka (CCU) and Ryan Page (Liberty) round out the All-Tournament team. Rollins, Shefka and Page tied for the second pitcher’s spot.
Winthrop receives the Big South’s automatic berth to the NCAA Championships. The national bracket will be announced Monday, May 30 at 11:30am on ESPN.
Quotes
Coastal Carolina Head Coach
Gary Gilmore“Our kids have a lot of heart, they played real hard … I had guys in the bullpen that I wanted to throw, but If I use our bullpen and we win, and they tell me next Friday they can’t pitch, then we’ve taken everything away from what we’ve tried to accomplish this season.”
Winthrop Head Coach Joe Hudak
“What a ballgame, (Coastal is) a great club. This was like a heavyweight fight. … We knocked them down, they’d get back up and knock us down. It was a great, great effort between two great clubs, and its only fitting that both of us are going to the NCAA Regionals.”
