Fisch Tank: Regional Roundup

From almost history to destiny, Coastal Carolina scored 21 runs in four innings to advance to the programs first NCAA Super Regional Tournament in a 24-11 victory over East Carolina.
It took CCU 23 runs in five innings, over the span of two games to erase the never’s and wont’s. Coastal had their backs pinned to the wall in the pivotal winners’ bracket game against Alabama Saturday night. Down by four runs in the top of the eighth inning, the Chants pecked away at the lead, and finally took over the game on a Tommy Baldridge 3 run homer that will be a headline in the baseball annuals for years to come. After shocking a much bigger and very physical Crimson Tide team, CCU was in the driver’s seat. A place they know well in the Big South Conference, but never on the national stage.
In front of a Watson Stadium record attendance of 2,320, once again the smaller squad Coastal Carolina bruised and beat down a bigger foe. Trailing East Carolina 4-2 in the second, the Chanticleers carved up the Pirates for 13 runs in the inning en route to a 24-11 win.
As Gary Gilmore gave his post game interviews you could tell by his face, before he even said it, “We finally got the monkey off our back.” The head coach has bled teal and black since his days in the outfield in Conway. Now he is the architect in the Chanticleers first Super Regional appearance.
But even before the celebratory mound on mound pile of players, Coastal has been conducting reality checks over the last four days. In their first game against Columbia something must have happened in the fifth inning, because from that point on the Chants started playing out of their minds.
All weekend long their runs came in bunches, which in retrospect makes sense for a group that played like a team. 3 runs here, 6 runs there, translated into 47 runs over three games. At one point this season it took CCU 11 contests to rack up that many runs scored.
Following their win over the Lions, Gilmore said,” We were pressing.” I beg to differ, now they’re impressing, by becoming the only mid-major program in the country to still be alive in the NCAA Tournament. The bracket may have come out favorably for them, but they rewarded for their efforts on the field and not their size of the school or their booster club.
Despite being a number one seed Coastal Carolina wasn’t the biggest or the most gifted, but they were the most opportunistic. Socastee product Chance Gilmore proved that when he was the trailblazer in their improbable eighth inning comeback. And Tommy Baldridge probably wouldn’t even start for the Crimson Tide, yet they need someone to remove the dagger he put in their back. David Sappelt may have won the Big South Player of the Year last season, yet with his size he would’ve been jettisoned to the bench in the S.E.C. Its scrappy players like this that lines the Chanticleers roster. The never’s and the wont’s, who showed the college baseball nation the only never and wont’s that fits into their vocabulary is to say die.

Oh yeah, guess I was wrong about South Carolina, but who would have thought all that power equals static. I mean come on 1 run in a deciding game, I could understand if pitching let you down, but one run. In a word: Miserable!

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