CONWAY, S.C. – No. 8 Coastal Carolina overcame a five-run second inning by the No. 17 Duke Blue Devils to storm back with an 8-6 win to keep the Chanticleers' season alive at the NCAA Conway Regional at Springs Brooks Stadium.
 
No. 1-seeded Coastal (42-20) and the No. 2-seeded Duke Blue Devils (37-22) will play a winner-takes-all championship game on Monday, June 5, at 6 p.m. ET.
 
For the third-straight game, the Chanticleers had a strong pitching performance, this time from out of the bullpen by left-handed hurler Bryce Shaffer. Shaffer (5-1), who gave up a grand slam on the very first pitch he threw in the second inning, bounced back to hold the Duke offense to just two runs on three hits, two walks, and four strikeouts over 6.0 innings to earn the win.
 
Shaffer handed the ball over to Teddy Sharkey (11) in the bottom of the eighth inning and the Collegiate Baseball second-team All-American delivered with 1.2-scoreless innings, allowing three hits and striking out three to pick up his 11th save of the year.
 
Sharkey's 11th save is tied for the third-most in a single season in CCU history.
 
The loss fell to Duke's bullpen and reliever Owen Proksch (5-3), as the lefty gave up two runs on three hits and four strikeouts over 2.1 innings of play.
 
Coastal's offense out dueled the Duke offense with eight runs on 10 hits, including a pair of home runs, highlighted by a grand slam from senior Graham Brown (2-for-4, GS, 4 RBIs, run) and a two-run home run by sophomore Derek Bender (2-for-4, HR, 2 RBIs, 2 runs).
 
With Bender's two-run home run in the bottom of the seventh inning, the redshirt sophomore set a new CCU single-season record with 83 RBIs this year.
 
On top of the two long balls, the top two hitters in the lineup in Payton Eeles (2-for-4, 2B, BB, RBI, run, SB) and Caden Bodine (2-for-5, 3B, RBI, run) combined for four hits, two RBIs, and two runs scored in the win.
 
Duke's offense proved why it is one of the top power-hitting offenses in the country, as the Blue Devils hit three home runs in the game, two from catcher Alex Stone (2-for-4, 2 HR, 2 RBIs, 2 runs) and a grand slam by outfielder Damon Lux (2-for-4, GS, 4 RBIs, run).
 
Just like in Saturday afternoon's win over UNCW, the Chanticleers jumped out to an early 4-0 lead on a grand slam from Brown in the first inning, this time in the bottom of the inning, his second grand slam of the Conway Regional.
 
However, the Blue Devils quickly answered with a big inning of their own in the top of the second, as Stone led off the inning with a solo home run before Lux blasted a grand slam to left field five hitters later to put the visitors in front 5-4 midway through the second inning.
 
The two bullpens kept the high-powered offenses from adding to the runs total over the next two at-bats before a two-out double down the right-field line by Eeles drove in the tying run in the bottom of the fourth to tie the game up at 5-5.
 
Shaffer continued to keep the Duke offense off balance with a 1-2-3 fifth, pitched around a two-out walk in the sixth, and another three-up, three-down inning in the top of the seventh to keep the scored knotted up at 5-5.
 
The Coastal offense came through in the bottom of the seventh inning, as Eeles legged out an infield single and advanced to second on a throwing error by the Duke pitcher on a pickoff attempt to first base to get the frame going.
 
Bodine followed with a triple off the right-center field wall to plate Eeles to put the home team on top 6-5.
 
Two batters later, Bender hit a moonshot to left-center field, his 19th home run of the season, to plate two more runs and extend the Chants' lead to 8-5 with two innings to play.
 
Duke quickly looked to get back into the game in the next half inning, as Stone belted his second home run of the game, this one to left-center field, to close the gap to two at 8-6 midway through the eighth inning.
 
Sharkey took care of business in the ninth, as the junior pitched around a lead-off single to send the next three batters down by way of a fly out, strikeout, and fielder's choice to seal the win for the Chanticleers.

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