Box Score / Play by Play
MT. PLEASANT, S.C. – College of Charleston baseball outdid Coastal Carolina, 8-5, in a battle of two ranked Palmetto State rivals at Patriots Point on Wednesday evening.
The Cougars (29-9 overall) knock off a ranked Coastal Carolina squad for the second straight week, completing a home-and-home sweep of the Chanticleers.
The Cougars outhit the Chants, 11-8, led by Erven Roper and Morgan Phillips who both went for three hits in the game. Nick Pappas and Alex Pastorius homered for the Cougars, and combined for five RBIs between the pair.
Nathan Helvey (6-3) offered a quality start from the mound and earned the win, holding the Chants to one run on five hits across 6.0 innings of work. Wade Arduini, Chase Henry, and Brandon Glazer combined in relief, with Glazer earning his first save of the season after shutting the game down in the ninth. Helvey also earned the win last week when the Cougars downed the Chants on the road.
The Cougars scored five of their eight runs with two outs, four of which came on a two-out rally in the third to put CofC out front for good.
“We know Coastal Carolina is a quality team and a postseason caliber team,” said head coach Monte Lee. “Any time you can beat a team like Coastal Carolina, who is an in-state rival and a top-25 ball club, it's huge for us. We are very proud of what we've been able to do against their club this year, because we have a lot of respect for them.
“We are finding ways to win. We are a very confident club right now, and we're playing loose and having fun. The big thing we've done all year long is putting up the big inning, and it's been a major factor for us. When you look at most of the games we win, we find a way to throw up a big inning, and we did it again tonight in the fourth inning. We took our walks, and came up with a couple big hits with two outs and scored four runs.
“We held on at the end; we walked or hit five guys in the seventh and eighth to give them a chance. If you don't throw strikes, good clubs are going to make you pay, and that's what they did, but, Glazer game in and got it done in the ninth for us.”
Charleston had to battle from behind for the second straight night, after giving up a run in the top of the third on a leadoff double by Tyler Chadwick and RBI single by Anthony Marks.
The Cougars seized control in the bottom half of the third with four runs on four hits, mounting a lead they'd never relinquish. After a double play erased a leadoff single by Roper, the Cougars loaded the bases on a Ryan Brown single and a pair of walks. Blake Butler drew a third consecutive walk, picking up an RBI to tie the game, before Pappas singled through the right side to plate two more runs, and Phillips followed with an RBI single to bring Butler around to score and put the Cougars up 4-1.
The Chants looked to respond in the fourth, loading the bases with one out, but Helvey forced a groundball which led to an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play, preserving the 4-1 Cougar lead.
Pastorius homered with Brown aboard in the fourth, and an RBI double by Rowland in the fifth stretched the lead to 7-1.
Coastal took a run back on a hit and two walks in the seventh, but Pappas negated it with the first pitch of the bottom half of the inning, slicing his sixth homer of the season out to left center to put the Cougars up 8-2.
The Chants reinserted themselves into the game with a three-run homer by Casey Shroeder in the eighth, but would get no closer as Henry shut down the inning from there, and Glazer sat the side down in order in the ninth.
The Cougars remain home for a weekend series against former Southern Conference rival Furman April 24-26 at Patriots Point.
“With this weekend's series, we need to come out with a sense of urgency to play well,” said Lee. ”We're within 14 games [remaining in the season], so it's important that we don't have any let downs and continue to play well.”
POSTGAME NOTES
The Cougars entered the week ranked in all polls, reaching No. 20 in both the Baseball America College Top 25 and National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) Poll, No. 22 in the USA Today Coaches Poll, No. 23 in the D1Baseball Top 25, and No. 27 in the Collegiate Baseball Poll.
Coastal was ranked No. 25 by the NCBWA, No. 24 by D1Baseball, and receiving votes in the USA Today Coaches Poll.
The Cougars entered the game with the nation's sixth-best hitting offense and improved upon their average with 11 hits (.324 average on the night), exceeding double digits for the seventh consecutive game and 13th time in 14 tries.
Charleston also came in to the game ranked sixth in the nation with 1.11 home runs per game, and hit multiple homers for the 15th time this year, improving to 14-1 when doing so.
Blake Butler extended his reached base streak * to 36 games which goes all the way back to opening weekend. On the season, Butler has at least one base hit in 33 of CofC's 38 games.
Carl Wise has reached base* in 24 consecutive games. Nick Pappas has reached base* in 17 consecutive games.
*A reached-base streak includes base hits, walks, and hit by pitches. Reaching on an error or fielder's choice does not extend a reached-base streak.
