Feb. 27, 2010

Game 1 Stats / Game 2 Stats

MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. - The 12th-ranked Coastal Carolina University baseball team rallied in the nightcap for nine runs in the eighth inning to complete a doubleheader sweep of No. 4 UC Irvine at Baseball at the Beach, Feb. 27. With the wins at BB&T Coastal Field in Myrtle Beach, the Chanticleers moved to 6-1 on the season while the Anteaters fell to 3-3.

In the opener, Coastal got on the board in the bottom of the first, utilizing baseball fundamentals to push the run across the plate. Rico Noel led off the inning with a walk and stole second to give the Chants a runner in scoring position with no outs. Noel moved to third on Scott Woodward's sacrifice bunt and then scored on Daniel Bowman's ground out to give Coastal a 1-0 lead.

The Chants added to the lead in the third with a two-out effort. Noel doubled down the left field line and eventually stole third. Woodward was hit by a pitch to put runners at the corners and Daniel Bowman followed with the RBI single to left field.

UCI got on the board in the top of the fourth, as Brian Hernandez led off the inning with a double to right center. Francis Larson followed with a single to right to put runners on first and third with no outs. However, Ronnie Shaeffer grounded into a double play, scoring Hernandez, and Casey Stevenson struck out to end the inning.

The bats got going for Coastal in the bottom half of the fourth, as Jose Iglesias started the inning with a walk. After a fly out, Chance Gilmore and Taylor Motter had back-to-back singles to load the bases. A pop out made it two down but Noel came through with a clutch single to right to score Iglesias and Gilmore and make it a 4-1 Chant lead.

The Anteaters had a threat going in the top of the fifth after back-to-back singles and a sacrifice bunt put runners on second and third with one out. However, a hard hit ground ball down the third base line was handled by Woodward, who tagged the runner and then threw across the diamond for the double play to end the threat.

The Chants scored for the third straight inning, pushing another run across the plate. Tommy LaStella got a one-out single and moved to second on a wild pitch. Iglesias then followed with a single up the middle to score LaStella, but was thrown out at second on an outfield cutoff. The next batter grounded out and Coastal led 5-1 through five innings.

UCI cut into the lead in the top of the sixth, but could only scratch out one run. Drew Hillman doubled down the left field line to start the inning and moved to third and later scored on a pair of groundouts.

Coastal responded with two of its own in the bottom of the frame, putting pressure on the Anteater defense. With one down, Taylor Motter singled through the left side, the final batter faced for UCI starter Daniel Bibona. Nick Hoover come on in relief and loaded the bases after walking Steve Davis and hitting Noel with a pitch. Hoover was then replaced by Ruben Orozco, who hit Scott Woodward with a 3-1 pitch to score Motter and leave the bases full. Bowman then had a sacrifice fly to center to score Davis and give the Chants a 7-2 lead through six.

The Anteaters got one back in the top of the eighth, getting things going with two down. Hernandez walked and Larson followed with a double to left center to score Hernandez and cut the lead to 7-3. However, reliever Ryan Connolly came in and struck out Ronnie Shaeffer to end the threat.

Junior Cody Wheeler earned the win, going 7 2/3 innings and giving up just three earned runs while striking out five. Connolly retired all four batters he faced, including the key strikeout. Bibona took the loss, going just 5 1/3 and giving up six earned runs on eight hits and two walks while striking out just two.

Noel was 2-for-3 with two runs and a pair of RBIs, while Motter finished 3-for-4 with one run scored for the Chants. UCI was led by Hernandez, who was 2-for-3 with two runs scored, and Cusick's 3-for-4 effort.

In the nightcap, UCI had the first threat of the game, opening the contest with a walk to D.J. Crumlich and a single to left by Sean Madigan. However, starter Matt Laney retired the next three batters with a strikeout and a pair of popouts in the infield to end the inning.

Coastal again got on the board in the top of the first, this time scoring three. Noel led off the inning with a walk and scored on Woodward's double to the left field wall. LaStella singled, putting runners on the corners, and Iglesias followed with a RBI single to make it 2-0 Chants. Rice followed with a single down the left field line, scoring LaStella from second.

The Anteaters came back to put up a pair of runs in bottom of the second, doing the damage with two outs. Fisher and Leyland both singled up the middle and Crumlich's walk loaded the bases. Madigan drew a full-count walk to plate Fisher with the first run. Hernandez then drove the ball up the middle, where Davis made a diving stop but couldn't get the runner at second and Leyland scored to cut it to 3-2. Laney was able to finally get out of the inning with a strikeout, keeping the Chanticleer lead at one.

UCI took the lead for the first time in the doubleheader in the top of the third. Cusick and Stevenson led off the inning with back-to-back singles, giving the Anteaters runners on the corners and chasing Laney from the game. Jonathan Hurst then followed with a single to right center off reliever Matt Rein that scored Cusick and continued the scoring threat, with runners on second and third. A wild pitch scored Stevenson and moved Hurst to third. Ryan Fisher then walked and moved to second on a fly out, with both he and Stevenson scoring on D.J. Crumlich's single to center field, giving UC Irvine a 6-3 lead.

Coastal responded to get one in the third, starting with a one-out walk to Tommy LaStella. Iglesias then doubled down the left field line to put two runners in scoring position. Adam Rice's sacrifice fly scored LaStella, but that was all the Chants could get in the inning, trailing by two at 6-4 through three innings of play.

Neither team was able to put up any runs on the board for the next four-and-a-half innings, with just three runners stranded between the two teams during those innings.

The bottom of the eight started out slowly for Coastal, as a groundout, a walk to Chance Gilmore and a line out left the squad with two down and a runner on first. Gilmore moved to second on a throwing error on a failed pick off attempt. It seemed the inning would end when Josh Conway swung at a third strike, but the pitch was in the dirt and by the UCI catcher, and Conway hustled to first to keep the inning alive. Noel drew a full-count walk to load the bases. Woodward then came to the plate and battled on a nine-pitch at-bat to draw a RBI walk and cut the margin to 6-5. On a 1-2 pitch, Bowman sent a sharp grounder back up the middle to score Conway and Noel and put the Chants back on top 7-6.

The momentum swing continued for Coastal, as LaStella walked and then scored with Woodward and Bowman on Iglesias' double down the right field line. After a pitching change by UCI to Kyle Necke, Rice singled to left to drive in Iglesias to make it 11-6. Gilmore hit a high hopper that Necke knocked down on the mound but couldn't throw out either runner, leaving runners on first and third again. Rich Witten then drilled a double over the centerfielder's head to score both Rice and Gilmore and complete the nine-run inning and give the Chants a 13-6 lead. Austin Fleet then came in out of the pen for the ninth and gave up a one-out walk but let nothing else happen in sealing the doubleheader sweep for Coastal.

Rein picked up his second win of the year, going 6.0 innings in relief and giving up just four hits and two earned runs in his stint. Matt Summers took the loss for UCI to fall to 1-1, pitching just one inning with five unearned runs, two strikeouts and three walks.

Iglesias had a solid game at the plate, going 4-for-5 with four RBIs and one run scored, finishing the day with a 6-for-8 performance with two doubles and five RBIs. Rice was 3-for-4 with 3 RBIs and one run scored in the night cap, while Noel finished 2-for-3 with two runs scored in the finale.

UCI was led at the plate by Crumlich, who was 1-for-3 with two walks and two RBIs, while Stevenson was 2-for-4 with one run scored.

The Chants will wrap up their Baseball at the Beach action on Sun., Feb. 28 at 2:30 p.m. at BB&T Coastal Field against North Carolina State. The Wolfpack dropped a 6-2 decision to James Madison at Watson Stadium on Saturday.