CONWAY, S.C. – Coastal Carolina baseball used a complete game in the 12-5 win over Davidson on Sunday afternoon, as the Chanticleers completed the three-game series sweep by hitting .429 (6-for-14) with two outs at the plate and struck out 16 Wildcat hitters on the mound.
The win was a milestone victory for Coastal Carolina head coach
Gary Gilmore, as it marked his 1,300th career win as a collegiate coach, now in his 34th season overall.
In the three-game sweep of the Wildcats, the Chanticleers totaled 45 runs, including a season-high 26 runs in a 26-5 win over Davidson on Saturday.
Leading the charge on the mound was sophomore reliever
Darin Horn (1-0), who used a career day to pick up the relief win. The second-year Chant struck out a career-high 10 hitters and allowed just one hit and walked just one batter over a career-high 4.1-scoreless innings. The win was the first for Horn in his collegiate career.
Recording his second save of the season was
Teddy Sharkey (2), as the junior righty entered the game in the eighth inning with the bases loaded and just one out and got the Chants out of the jam with the tying run at the plate. He then pitched around a lead-off walk in the ninth to strike out two hitters over 1.2 innings of work on the backend.
On the other side, the loss went to Davidson reliever Miles Jamieson (1-1), as the righty gave up five runs, four of which were earned, on four hits, four walks, one hit batter, three strikeouts, and three wild pitches over 2.1 innings out of the bullpen.
After 26 runs on 26 hits in Saturday's win, the Chants' offense only plated 12 runs on 11 hits on Sunday but took advantage of nine walks and six hit batters by the Davidson pitching staff.
Derek Bender (2-for-4, 2B, SF, BB, 3 RBIs, 2 runs) continued to swing a hot bat at the plate, posting another multi-hit game and driving in three more RBIs in the win, while
Zack Beach (3-for-4, 2B, BB, HBP, RBI) had a team-high three base hits on the day and finished the weekend series going 7-for-8 at the plate with a home run, two doubles, and six RBIs.
Six other Chants had one RBI in the win, highlighted by
Blake Barthol (2-for-4, 2B, HBP, RBI, 2 runs) with an RBI double and
Payton Eeles (1-for-3, HR, 3 BB, RBI, 3 runs, SB) with his first home run as a Chant.
Davidson's offense, which saw all nine players in the lineup strike out at least once in the game, was led by Michael O'Shaughness (1-for-3, HR, BB, HBP, 2 RBI, 2 runs) and his two-run home run in the first inning and Jacob Hinderleider (2-for-5, RBI, run), who had two of the Wildcats' six hits for the game.
Davidson jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning on an O'Shaughnessy two-run home run well over the right-field wall and then added to its lead with a three-run third inning highlighted by an RBI single from Hinderleider and a sacrifice fly by Landon Reeves to run out to a 5-0 lead.
After scoring in each of the last 12 innings, the last four innings of Friday night's game and all eight innings in which they hit in Saturday's win, the Chanticleers did not score over the first two innings and found themselves in a 5-0 deficit early.
However, the scoring trend quickly returned, as the home team scored two runs in the bottom of the third on an Eeles' solo home run to left field and a Bender sacrifice fly to trim the Davidson lead to three at 5-2 after three innings of play.
The third inning was the turning point, as Davidson would not score for the rest of the game, while the Chants would run off 12 unanswered runs with at least one runner crossing the plate in the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth innings in the win.
While Horn sent the Wildcats down in order in both the fourth and fifth innings, and pitched around a double in the sixth, striking out the side in both the fifth and sixth frames, the offense continued to score runs.
CCU pushed across three two-out runs in the bottom of the fourth on a
Chad Born RBI single and then two more runs on a wild pitch and a passed ball to tie the game up at 5-5 heading into the fifth inning of play.
The Chants took their first lead of the game in the bottom of the fifth inning, as Barthol followed a
Graham Brown walk and stolen base with an RBI double to left-center field to put the home team on top 6-5.
Two batters later,
Ty Dooley hit a chopper off the turf in front of the plate that bounced over the head of the drawn-in shortstop to plate Barthol and extend the Chants' lead to two at 7-5.
After scoring one run in the sixth on a Davidson error, a sacrifice bunt, and three hit batters, and another run in the seventh on a two-out RBI single by Brown to push the lead to 9-5, the Wildcats loaded the bases in the top of the eighth on a one-out single and back-to-back walks.
With the tying run at the plate, Sharkey entered the game and got the Davison lead-off hitter to strike out and then forced a ground ball to the first baseman for out number three to strand three Davidson runners and keep the score at 9-5.
The Chants added three insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth on back-to-back two-out RBI base hits, as Bender singled through the right side with the bases loaded to score two runs while Beach followed with an RBI base hit of his own to put the score at 12-5 in favor of the Chanticleers.
Both teams left double-digit runners on base for the game, as Davidson stranded 10 runners while Coastal left 15 runners on the base paths.
Coastal (7-4) will host No. 2/5 Wake Forest (13-0) on Tuesday, March 7, with the first pitch set for 4 p.m. ET at Springs Brooks Stadium.
For complete coverage of CCU baseball, follow the Chants on social media @CoastalBaseball (Twitter), facebook.com/CCUChanticleers (Facebook), @GoCCUsports (Instagram), or visit the official home of Coastal Carolina Athletics at www.GoCCUsports.com.
