HARRISONBURG, Va. – For the 10th time this season, Coastal Carolina baseball’s offense exploded for double-digit runs as the Chanticleers welcomed James Madison to the Sun Belt Conference with a 16-3 road win at JMU in the two teams’ conference opener on Friday afternoon in Harrisonburg, Va.
With the win, the Chanticleers improved to 11-5 overall and 1-0 in conference play on the season, while the loss dropped the Dukes to 11-8 overall and 0-1 in league action.
The Chanticleers erased an early 3-0 deficit by scoring 16 unanswered runs from the third inning on to run away with the conference road win.
Coastal again did most of its damage with two outs, as the Chants hit .533 (8-for-15) with two outs in the inning and drove in 11 two-out RBIs. The Chants also hit .478 (11-for-23) with runners on base and .556 (10-for-19) with runners in scoring position.
A total of 10 different Chants had a hit in the contest on Friday afternoon, led by a three-hit game from Nick Lucky (3-for-4, HR, BB, HBP, 5 RBIs, 3 runs, SB), which included a home run and five RBIs, while off the bench, Kameron Guangorena (1-for-1, HR, 3 RBIs, run) had a pinch-hit home run in the ninth inning.
CCU’s Derek Bender (2-for-6, RBI, 2 runs) extended his hitting streak to 13 consecutive games, Caden Bodine (2-for-4, 2 2B, BB, 3 runs) finished with two doubles, while Graham Brown (2-for-3, BB, HBP, 2 RBIs, run) and Zack Beach (2-for-5, 3 RBIs) both had two hits and drove in multiple RBIs in the win.
Picking up the win on the mound for the Chants was freshman Jacob Morrison (2-0), as the righty registered his second win of the season and his second quality start on the year. The first-year Chant gave up three runs on five hits, three walks, and three strikeouts over a career-high 7.0-complete innings.
Reliever Bryce Shaffer did his job out of the bullpen, as the lefty followed Morrison with 2.0-scoreless innings, allowing just two base runners on one hit, one walk, and two strikeouts.
The same two will play game 2 of their series on Saturday at 2pm.
