Ashley Bagwell pitched spectacularly in the big South title game, striking out a career high 13.  13 was a lucky number for Bagwell on Sunday, as she also retired the last 13 batters she faced.

Coastal’s bats struck early and often driving a run across in each of the first four innings.  Lead-off hitter Sarah Maples led the team, going 3-4 on the day.  Kory Hayden and Cacia Pierre both drove across a run.

Now, the lady Chants will travel to Athens to start their regional on Friday.  Good luck, Chanticleers!

The Chants had the bats going very early on Tuesday night, taking an early 1-0 lead in the first.  They then were able to add to that by getting two runs in both the fourth and fifth innings, which made the game 5-2 in favor of the Chanticleers.  Unfortunately, Coastal wasn’t quite as good with the glove Tuesday night.

Going into the sixth inning, it was 5-2 Coastal then the errors started.  Creel dropped an easy pop up, Gilliam made a bad throw to second on what should’ve been a double play, Flawerly made bad throw to first after getting a force at the plate with the bases loaded.  In all, there were four errors and the Tigers took a 7-5 lead going into the seventh.

Good thing for Coastal, the bats stayed hot.  The Chants got one back in the seventh on a RBI single by Witten to make the score 7-6.  Then Coastal exploded for four runs in the eighth.

Coastal started the eighth with May being hit by a pitch.  That made the fifth straight inning the Chants had gotten their lead off man on base.  Blackman singled, and May scored on a throwing error by the Tigers to tie  the game.  After another hit by pitch sent Bowman to first base, he quickly stole second.  After a ground out, Witten strides to the plate and belts one down the left field line scoring both runners and giving Coastal a lead they would not relinquish.  Frawley come through with a hit to bring Witten home, making it 10-7 (which would be the final score).   While this was a big win for the program, it wasn’t even the biggest news of the week.

After leaving Clemson, the Chants headed for Lynchburg to battle the Flames.  Coming into the series, Coastal and Liberty were 1 and 2 in the Big South with the Chants having a 9-3 conference mark and the Flames coming in at 10-5.  Both teams saw this series as a chance to take control of the Big South – and Coastal did just that.

Coastal’s sweep of the Flames made it clear that the Chants are still in charge of this conference.  Coastal’s pitching shut down the Flames offense.  In game two of the series, Tyler Herb took a no hitter into the seventh as Coastal won 4-2.  Liberty only scored six runs in the series.  Coastal’s bats stayed on fire and so did Witten, who had the game winning hit in Thursday’s 5-3 victory.  Saturday’s game was Coastal’s most potent offensive outburst of the series, as they scored seven times in a 7-1 victory.  Bowmen and Buccilli had three hits and three RBI’s each in the series final game.   The Chants drove 16 runs across the plate in Lynchburg.  Coastal has now won 16 straight over the Flames.

The Keydets started off by taking a 2-0 lead on runs in the second and third innings, but it was Rich Witten who would provide the power for Coastal on Sunday.  First, he came up in the sixth inning and crushed a ball into the gap, driving in May and Bowman to tie it up. However, VMI appeared to have a chance to put the game away in the eighth as they loaded the bases with only one out.  That’s when Gary Gilmore called on closer Ryan Connolly to put out the fire.  Connolly struck out the first batter he faced, then got a ground ball to end the inning and keep the game tied at 2.  Then, it was Witten’s turn again.  He came to the plate in the bottom of the ninth and crushed a 2-1 offering into the stands to give Coastal a 3-2 victory.

Coastal win over VMI today made it 16 in a row over the Keydets.  Coastal now travels to Blacksburg on Tuesday to play the Virgina Tech Hokies, then we are back in Conway for three against High Point this weekend.  Coastal is now first in the Big South with a 7-2 conference record.  As always – Go Chants!

Coastal had beaten UNC in Chapel Hill three times in a row until last season’s meeting .  During the 2010 season, Coastal went to Chapel Hill and came out with a 12-4 victory. In 2009, Coastal won 7-3, and in 2008 the Chants came away with an 11-4 victory.

If the Chanticleers can win on Wednesday, it will greatly pad their resume and possibly lead to hosting a regional in Conway this season.  Of course, that assumes that we continue the roll we are on throughout the rest of this season against Big South competition.  The team will also need to pick up victories in tough mid-week match-ups against Clemson and Virginia Tech down the road.

Coastal baseball got off to a slow start this season, but I hope this recent winning streak is just the start of an unbelievable season of baseball in Conway!

Now that Basketball season is done, we have baseball season upon us.  As of now, CCU baseball is 4-4 with wins over Iowa, N.C. State and Illinois. Our loses came to Virginia, Boston College, Virginia Tech, and Pittsburgh.  So, when exactly did we join the ACC?  All jokes aside – Coastal’s schedule doesn’t get any easier in March.

This weekend we host the Chanticleer Classic.  Coastal will play Ohio State, College of Charleston, Toledo, and Marist.  That is followed by the Coastal Carolina Classic (would it kill the Athletic department to think up some original names?).  Anyway, at the Coastal Carolina Classic we play Michigan and Connecticut. After that, Albany comes in for a three game series.  Finally, on March 28th we head up to Chapel Hill to face the Tar Heels – and, let’s face it, they have been a huge obstacle between us and the CWS in the past.

It appears by the end of this month, we will know where our baseball team stands against some of the country’s best teams.  If this Coastal team is like past ones, we will see that they are capable of defeating any team in the nation.

Coastal did their part by pounding VMI 81-64.  The Chants shot 52.6% from the floor and 79% from the line against the Keydets.  Raffa was CCU’s leading scorer with 26 points.   Gradnigo added 16 and just missed a double-double, coming down with a team high 9 boards.  Coastal did have a problem holding onto the ball, turning it over 17 times in the win.  Hopefully, that will not be a problem in the conference tourney this week.

For the Keydets’ part, they decided to stand outside the three point line and throw the ball toward the basket most of the game.  That’s an effective strategy – if the ball goes into the basket!  However, when you go 6 for 33, 18.2% from out there – you aren’t going to win many games. They shot 20 of 72, 27.8% overall.

Coastal must now get ready to play in the conference tourney on Wednesday against the winner of Monday’s VMI/Radford game.  Let’s face it – in the Big South, it really doesn’t matter what happens in the regular season.  Short of going undefeated, there is no shot at getting an at-large bid to the Big Dance.  It doesn’t even matter what seed you are in the Big South tournament.  All that matters is if you win the tournament, you go to the Dance.  Lose in the tourney, and you go nowhere.  Let’s go dancing!

So, a good start to the season for the Chants.  This has become routine as Coastal has now won seven straight openers.

Two things happened in this game that had not happened during our three game losing streak.  One was Raffa played 30 minutes.  He had not played for 30 minutes during any game of the losing streak.  He did play 27 minutes twice, but only played 16 minutes in the loss to Campbell. The other is that Coastal was able to make their free throws, going 11-14 in the game.  Coastal had been terrible from the line during the losing streak, going 8-17 against Campbell, 8-16 against High Point, and 10-18 against Winthrop.  We scored more from the line against UNC-A than we did in any of the previous three despite shooting fewer foul shoots.

Down the stretch, Coastal must continue the momentum that was gained with this huge win.  The keys seem to be making foul shots and keeping Raffa on the floor.  Coastal only has two Big South games left and it must give the same effort it gave last night in defeating the UNC-A if they are to have a shot at breaking the 19 year NCAA tournament drought. GO CHANTS!

Now, that lead is hanging by a thread following tonight’s 70-65 loss to High Point.  This is only the second time this season Coastal has lost back to back games (December 19th and 22nd – losses to East Carolina and College of Charleston).

Tonight’s loss was a bad loss.  The other three conference losses came against top Big South teams UNC-Asheville and Campbell.  High Point came into this game 5-9 in the Big South and 9-15 overall.  The loss leaves Coastal only one game above Campbell and Charleston Southern with UNC-Asheville (13-1 in the Big South) still coming up on Valentine’s Day.  Before that, we have to get by Winthrop in Rock Hill.

If Coastal has another slip like they did tonight against High Point, I can see them being a 4 seed in the Big South Conference tournament.  If they play up to their potential these last two weeks, they should go into the Big South Tournament as a 2 seed.  Either way – at this point, the only way to the postseason for Coastal is to win the conference tourney.  Being a #1 seed hasn’t helped us in recent history, so maybe being the lower seed for once will lead the Chanticleers back to the NCAA tournament for the first time in nearly 20 years.

Coastal defeated Presbyterian on 52-49 Thursday night.  Raffa led the team in Points (19), Rebounds (8) and assists (4) for the game.  He also passed the 1,000 career points mark during this game. However, it was a close contest with Presbyterian making a late run to cut the lead to one with 21 seconds on the clock.   Raffa knocked down two big foul shots, increasing CCU’s lead to 3. The Blue Hose then missed what would’ve been a game tying three as time expired.  So – not only did Raffa lead the team in three categories and reach 1,000 points, he also nailed two key free throws down the stretch to give Coastal its margin of victory.

Tuesday was a different game, but had the same result – another Coastal victory.  The Chants defeated Gardner-Webb 70-56 in Boiling Springs, NC.  Coastal’s defense clamped down on the Bulldogs, allowing only one FG in the final 6:51.   Anthony Raffa (who else?) led the team with a career high 32 points along with 3 steals.  McLaurin had 10 Rebounds and 3 blocks – also, Greenwood had 10 assists.

Coastal Carolina is continuing their roll I mentioned in my previous post. The Chants have now won six of seven and show no signs of slowing down.  They do, however, have a week off before facing Charleston Southern and Campbell at home.  If Coastal can win those two games against the third and fourth place teams in the conference, it will solidify their hold on second place.  Those wins would also put them in position to regain first place with a win over UNC-Asheville on Valentine’s Day.  Don’t forget to bring a date to Kimbel Arena for that one!