MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Coastal Carolina's pitching staff remained dominant on Friday night, as the Chanticleers held home-standing West Virginia to just two runs on five hits and struck out 11 Mountaineer hitters in a 5-2 road win in the series opener in Morgantown, W.Va.
 
CCU's pitching has allowed just three runs over the last three games, all of which were wins, and has struck out 30 batters and given up just 13 hits over the three-game span.
 
With the win, CCU moves to 11-5 on the season and has now won four-straight over the Mountaineers who fall to 7-6 on the year with the loss.
 
Reid VanScoter (2-0) picked up his second win of the season, this time as the starter, as he surrendered just one run on four hits while striking out five batters over 5.0-complete innings. It was his first career start as a Chant.
 
The duo of Shaddon Peavyhouse (1 hit, 1 ER, 1 BB) and Luke Barrow (2.0 IP, 3 BB, 3 K) kept the Chants in front over the sixth and seventh innings before handing the ball off to the Chants' closer Alaska Abney (4) who picked up the save with three strikeouts over 2.0-scoreless innings.
 
The offense came through with five runs on nine hits led by two hits apiece from Parker Chavers (2-for-5, RBI) and BT Riopelle (2-for-5, 2B), and one RBI apiece from Nick Lucky (1-for-5, 2B, RBI, run), Cooper Weiss (1-for-3, 3B, BB, RBI, run), Billy Underwood (0-for-0, BB, RBI), and Makenzie Pate (1-for-4, RBI, run). Eric Brown (1-for-2, 2B, BB) extended his team-high hitting streak to 13-straight games.
 
Left-handed pitcher Jackson Wolf (1-2) was handed the loss for the Mountaineers, as the starter was run from the game in the fourth inning, allowing four runs, two of which were earned, on five hits, three walks, and six strikeouts in 3.2 innings.
 
WVU's offense was catcher Paul McIntosh (2-for-4, 2 RBIs) as he had two of the five Mountaineer hits and drove in both runs in the loss.
 
The contest started out as a pitcher's duel, as VanScoter and Wolf pitched around trouble and kept both offenses off the scoreboard for the first three innings.
 
However, the Chants broke through in the top of the fourth in a big way, plating four runs to take the early lead.
 
Coastal got the inning started with a little help from WVU's Wolf, as the starting pitcher walked the lead-off hitter and then committed a throwing error on a sacrifice bunt attempt to put runners on second and third with no outs.
 
CCU's Underwood then hit a sacrifice fly to left field to score the first run of the game and put the visitors in gray on top at 1-0. Pate followed with an RBI single to left field to double the lead at 2-0 before Lucky sliced a double off the glove of the diving center fielder to plate Pate and push the lead out to 3-0.
 
Two batters later, after a Brown double to right field, Chavers hit a ground ball to the right side of the infield to drive in Lucky and give the Chants a 4-0 lead midway through the fourth inning.
 
WVU got one run back in the bottom of the fourth on a two-out RBI single by McIntosh and then a second run in the bottom of the sixth on a McIntosh fielder's choice with the bases loaded to but the Mountaineers within two at 4-2.
 
WVU looked to cut into the Coastal lead even more in the sixth, however, Barrow, who entered the game with the bases loaded and no outs, was able to get a strikeout, a fielder's choice ground out to shortstop, and a second strikeout in the inning two batters later to get Coastal out of the jam with just one run allowed.
 
The Chants' offense pushed the lead back out to three in the top of the seventh, as Alex Gattinelli ripped a one-out double just inside the third-base line and then scored two batters later on a two-out RBI triple off the base of the right-center field wall by Weiss to put CCU up 5-2 heading into the seventh-inning stretch.
 
The three-run lead was more than enough, as Barrow, with the help of a pickoff by Riopelle behind a runner at first base, pitched around two walks in the seventh while Abney pitched back-to-back 1-2-3 innings in the eighth and ninth to seal the road win for the Chanticleers on Friday night.
 
Coastal and West Virginia will return to the field tomorrow afternoon at 3 p.m. ET for game two of the three-game weekend series.
 
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