Coastal baseball continues to win against tough competition

The Coastal Carolina baseball team is on a roll to start the 2018 season, going 7-2 in their first nine games and grabbing wins over Illinois, West Virginia and VCU this past weekend.

Coastal took on Illinois twice this past weekend, winning the first game 6-4 but a comeback on Saturday fell short and the Illini took game two 7-6.

On Friday, fter going down 2-0 at the end of the top of the second inning, sophomore Keiton Weisz doubled down the right field line and brought in three runs to give the Chanticleers a 4-2 lead at the end of two.

Going into the final three innings, the Chanticleers and Illini were tied at four but all that changed in the bottom of the eighth when senior Woody Woodall homered to left field to break the deadlock and give the Chanticleers a 6-4 edge.

Junior pitcher Matt Eardensohm pitched 4.1 innings, strikeout five batters and got his second win of the season.

On Saturday, the Chants trailed 7-0 going into the bottom of the fifth inning but the team began to rally when junior Zach Biernman hit a two-run homerun to make it 7-2. Senior Seth Lancaster drove in two more runs with a two-run homer the following inning.

Lee Sponseller hit Coastal’s third two-run homerun in the bottom of the ninth inning to bring the score to 7-6. Illinois would strike out the next batter though to end the game and hand Coastal its second loss of the season.

Coastal would bounce back on Sunday, Feb. 25 with back-to-back wins over West Virginia and VCU.

The Chanticleers defeated the Mountaineers 5-2 in game one of their doubleheader thanks to Lancaster going 2-2 from the plate and recording 2 RBI’s in the win. Sophomore Anthony Veneziano recorded four strikeouts and allowed two hits in his first win of the 2018 season.

In game two of the doubleheader on Sunday night, the Chanticleers came out of the gate swinging and didn’t look back, scoring seven runs in the first inning.

VCU made an attempt to rally in third inning by scoring four runs but the Chanticleers responded by scoring three more runs to make it 10-4 after three innings. The Chants would tack on two more runs in the fourth inning and three runs in the sixth to nab a 15-5 victory.

The Chanticleers are a statistical machine right now, leading the NCAA in doubles and being ranked in the top fifteen in runs, hits, walks drawn, stolen bases and home runs. The Chanticleers also lead the Sun Belt in doubles, runs, hits, stolen bases, slugging percentage, fewest walks allowed per nine innings, WHIP, strikeout-to-walk, batting percentage and earned runs allowed.

The Chanticleers take on UNC-Wilmington on Feb. 28 at Springs Brooks Stadium. First pitch is set for 4 p.m.