Chanticleers drop a weekend series against the University of Louisiana-Lafayette

Coastal Carolina hosted the Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin Cajuns at Spring Brooks Stadium over the weekend where they dropped the first two games and picked up a win in the series finale.

May 3

The Coastal Carolina Chanticleers were embarrassed on their home field on Friday as they fell to the Louisiana Ragin Cajuns by a final score of 10-0.

Offensively, the Chanticleers were only able to manage a mere six hits on the night - all of which were singles – with Jake Wright picking up two of the six hits.

Coastal starting pitcher Anthony Veneziano pitched his heart out from the opening pitch, as he retired 11 straight Ragin Cajun batters and carried a no-hitter into the fifth inning. Once the fifth inning rolled around, the tides began to turn for the Chanticleers pitching staff. Veneziano gave up three runs in the fifth inning and one in the sixth as he was handed the loss.

Louisiana-Lafayette starter Jack Burk picked up the win with easily his best start of the season, going 6.0 scoreless innings giving up five hits and striking out seven.

May 4

A Chanticleer rally fell short as CCU managed to only scratch across one run in the bottom of the ninth as they fell to the Ragin Cajuns by a final score of 9-7.

While ULL jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the top of the 3rd inning, Coastal Carolina responded quickly with four runs of their own in the bottom half of the same inning. Designated hitter Jake Wright and outfielder Cameron Pearcey each contributed a homerun for the Chants in the contest, and first baseman Zach Biermann drove in two runs on his 1-5 day at the plate.

ULL reliever Jacob Schultz picked up the win as he went 5.0 innings out of the bullpen, giving up two runs on three hits while striking out three and walking four.

Coastal reliever Jay Causey suffered the loss as he gave up two runs on two hits while walking three and striking out two over 2.1 innings out of the bullpen.

May 5

Coastal Carolina avoided a series sweep at home by salvaging an 11-9 victory in game three. Eight of the nine starters in the CCU lineup registered a hit in the victory as the offense helped snap Coastal’s three game losing streak. Jake Wright contributed a three-run homerun and walked three times while first baseman Zach Biermann contributed two hits and drove in three runs.

Starter Austin Kitchen earned the victory for Coastal Carolina as he went 5.1 innings, giving up five runs while walking two and striking out four.

Dalton Horton shouldered the loss for Louisiana-Lafayette as he went a mere 0.2 innings as he gave up three runs on three hits while walking one and striking out none. He also threw two wild pitches.

After 48 games into the season, the Chanticleers have reached 20 losses for the first since 2015. In the first 24 games of the season, the Chanticleers were 18-5-1 with wins over Illinois, Indiana, Washington and UConn. The Chants also tied the then-number team in the country Oregon State. The Chants also were 5-1 in Sun Belt Conference play. In the last 24 games, the Chanticleers have gone 9-15 with losing four Sun Belt series. Coastal has gone 7-10 in conference play during the last 24 games.

In the 43 years of Coastal Carolina baseball, there have only been 18 20-plus loss seasons in Coastal Carolina history.

The Chanticleers scored 10 or more runs in 12 of their first 24 games while only allowing 10 or more runs once. In their last 24 games, the Chants have scored 10 or more runs only five times while teams have scored 10 or more runs five times.

Coastal Carolina enters their final away series of the season this Friday, May 10 as they travel to UT-Arlington for a three-game series before the Chanticleers return home to play host to Clemson on Tuesday, May 14 and their season finale in a three-game series against Appalachian State on Thursday, May 16.

First pitch down in Arlington on Friday, May 10 is at 7:30 p.m.