CONWAY, S.C. – It was the best of times and worst of times for the No. 24 Coastal Carolina baseball team in a 16-6, seven-inning defeat to No. 14 Wake Forest on Tuesday at Springs Brooks Stadium.
A season-best crowd of 3,750 packed the Palace for the highly-anticipated showdown of ranked teams. For the first three innings, Coastal fans got the show they were looking for.
Coastal Carolina (12-5) took advantage of early free passes to keep pace in the first two innings, tying the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the first on a solo home run from
Caden Bodine and an RBI single from
Sebastian Alexander. The Chanticleers added two more in the second without recording a hit, using a walk, hit batter, and fielder's choice to plate runs.
Up 5-4 in the top of the fourth, the Demon Deacons (15-3) plated seven runs to put things out of reach. Kade Lewis led the charge, going 4-for-4 with three RBIs, including a two-run homer in the fourth. Ethan Conrad added a three-run shot in the second as part of his two-hit, three-RBI performance.
Following the Wake outburst in the fourth, Coastal's bats went quiet. The Chanticleers managed just five hits on the night, with
Brice Estep delivering a late RBI double in the sixth.
Wake Forest's Matt Bedford (2-2) earned the win in relief, tossing two scoreless innings. Coastal reliever
Darin Horn (0-1) took the loss after allowing three runs in 2.1 innings of work.
UP NEXT
This weekend marks the start of Sun Belt Conference play with Georgia Southern coming to town for a three-game set. All games will be available on the Chanticleer Sports Network and ESPN+.
Friday's game is set for a 6 p.m. ET start and will feature fireworks for the National Anthem, all Coastal home runs and a six-minute show postgame. Saturday's game will start at 2 p.m. while Sunday's series closer starts at 1 p.m. and serves as Youth Day. Kids under 12 get in for free and will have fun activities on the concourse and they can run the bases postgame!
Tickets for all Chanticleer baseball games are available at
GoCCUSports.com.