Box Score Baseball Wins 1-0 Pitcher's Duel over Creighton

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CONWAY, S.C. – Two days after scoring 36 runs in a game, the 12^th-ranked Coastal Carolina University baseball team (13-1) found a different way to win. The Chanticleers were locked in a pitcher’s duel with Creighton (3-10) before a run-scoring single from senior Tyler Bortnick (Mentor, Ohio/Mentor) in the eighth broke a scoreless tie and lifted the Chants to a 1-0 win over the Bluejays March 10 in Conway, S.C. Coastal Carolina has now won 10 games in a row and wins both games of the two-game set against Creighton.   Coastal Carolina’s best chance of scoring before the eighth was in the opening frame. Bortnick walked with one out and was replaced by redshirt junior Chance Gilmore (Surfside Beach, S.C./Virginia) at first on a fielder’s choice. Senior David Anderson (Lexington, S.C./White Knoll) then singled to left to put runners on the corners. Creighton starter Jonas Dufek was able to get out of the inning as junior Adam Rice (Cedar Rapids, Iowa/Elgin C.C.) grounded into a fielder’s choice to end the threat.   Coastal Carolina senior Bobby Gagg (Hamburg, N.J./Wallkill) had his second straight strong outing, allowing just three hits in 5.2 innings, but he ran into a little trouble in the sixth. Jimmy Swift led off the inning with a single. Robbie Knight then reached on a fielding error from freshman Taylor Motter (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla./Palm Beach Gardens). Elliot Soto would move both runners up on a sacrifice bunt. Gagg would strike out Darin Ruf, but walked Vicente Cafaro, loading the bases. Redshirt freshman Keith Hessler (Silver Sping, Md./Springbrook) came in and got out of the jam, getting T.J. Roemmich to pop out to end the inning.   The Bluejays got two runners on in the seventh, but junior Nick McCully (Lakeland, Fla./Santa Fe Catholic) came in and struck out Swift and got Knight to ground out to keep the game scoreless.   Sophomore Rico Noel (Lawton, Okla./Lawton) got the eighth going by hitting a one-out double to left field. Jack VanLeur came in for Creighton and got sophomore Scott Woodward (Markle, Ind./Norwell) to ground out, but Bortnick took a 3-2 pitch right back up the middle for a single, scoring Noel for the first run of the game. McCully gave up a one-out single in the ninth, but struck out pinch hitter Carson Vitale to end the game.   McCully earned the win in relief for the Chants, striking out three in 2.2 innings. The hard-luck loss went to Dufek, who allowed just four hits and a run with four strikeouts in 7.1 innings.   Bortnick now has a 13-game hitting streak after going 2-for-3 at the plate. Cafaro and Nick Becker had two hits apiece for Creighton.   Coastal Carolina wraps up its homestand Wednesday, March 11 against USC Upstate. The game starts at 4 p.m., in Watson Stadium/Vrooman Field.