Coastal on the brink of elimination from Conway Regional after 11-6 loss to Washington

Coastal Carolina fell to the Washington Huskies 11-6 in the NCAA Conway Regional on Saturday, June 2 at Springs Brooks Stadium in Conway, SC.

Coastal, the designated away team for the game, grabbed a 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning but things went downhill in the bottom of the frame. Washington scored six runs, including a grand slam by Nick Kahle, to go up 6-1 and never looked back from there.

Coastal did try to work their way back into the game, scoring three runs in the top of the third to make it a 6-4 game. And while Washington stretched the lead to 7-4 by adding a run in the bottom of the fourth inning, the Chanticleers were able to pull within a single run in the top of the sixth.

However, the Huskies would get a two-run home run from Joe Wainhouse in the bottom of the sixth and from that moment, the Chanticleers were never able to recover. Washington added two more runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to make it 11-6.

Senior first baseman Woody Woodall talked about the mental state of the team after tonight’s loss.

“We have to take it one game at a time that is all you can do,” said Woodall. “We have a game at 12:00 tomorrow and we have to come out and give it our best shot. Tonight’s game is behind us.”

Coastal now faces elimination following their loss to the Huskies on Saturday night. Facing elimination is something that the Chanticleers were used to in their miraculous 2016 College World Series run and Head Coach Gary Gilmore made sure to make his team aware of that in his post-game message.

“We have been in the position on previous occasions, and we found ways to get it done,” said Gilmore. “It is all about having the right mindset, but we will be fine. I am not worried about us. We did some things today pretty good enough to win and we did some things bad enough to lose. They did better than us across the board.”

Coastal Carolina will now play Connecticut tomorrow at noon in a win-or-go home situation at Springs Brooks Stadium. The winner of that matchup will advance to the Conway Regional final to face Washington. Whoever advances to face Washington will have to defeat them twice in order to advance to the Super Regional round.

Gilmore gave his thoughts on facing Connecticut, a team that Coastal lost to earlier in the season by a score of 12-10 at Springs Brooks Stadium.

“They are the most talented pitching staff coming in here, they have good arms,” said Gilmore. “Our offense is going to have to grind and hopefully we can get five to six good innings out of Zack Hopeck. If so we will have a shot to win.”