University of North Carolina Ashville Athletics
UNC Asheville
Coastal Carolina
Coastal Rallies to defeat UNC Asheville 6-3 - UNC Asheville Bulldogs Official Athletics Site
01.01.1970 | Baseball
May 23, 2007
ROCK HILL, S.C. - No. 1 seed Coastal Carolina rallied to score three runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to break a 3-3 tie and defeat No. 6 seed UNC Asheville, 6-3, Wednesday morning in Game 1 of the 2007 Big South Conference Baseball Championship.
With the victory, the Chanticleers improve to 45-11 and advance to play the loser of No. 3 Liberty-No. 4 VMI Thursday at 3:00pm. UNC Asheville falls to 21-37 and moves to the loser's bracket and will face the loser of No. 2 Winthrop-No. 5 High Point Thursday at 11:00am.
The Chanticleers loaded the bases in the eighth inning with out the benefit of a hit. Chris Raber was hit by a pitch that forced home Tyler Bortnick to put CCU up 4-3. Two batters later, Matt Rademacher lined a single to center to score David Sappelt and Dom Duggan to provide the final margin.
"I am proud of the way our team competed today," said Asheville head coach Willie Stewart. "We hurt ourselves with errors and walks and against a team like Coastal you just can't make those types of mistakes. Edmund (Locklear) had a big pinch hit to get us back in the game but we needed more production from the line-up. Still, I am real proud of how we went out and competed."
Asheville got on the board in the top of the second, Elliott Arrington reached on a one-out error and moved to second on Kyle Smith's ground out to Coastal starter David Anderson. Steve Burnich, who had two hits on the day, singled up the middle to score Arrington and give the Bulldogs an early 1-0 lead.
The Bulldogs threatened in the third frame as well, getting two hits off Anderson to put runners on the corners. But the Chanticleer defense made two great plays to thwart the effort. Left fielder David Sappelt made a long running catch in the gap to rob Kevin Mattison of extra bases. Later in the inning, the Chants forced Rob Vernon into a run-down and threw out Matt Henson at home to keep Asheville off the scoreboard.
Coastal then scored in three straight innings to take the lead. The Chants tied the game at 1-1 in the bottom of the third when Rademacher singled down the right field line to score Raber.
Sappelt hit his 10th home run of the season with two out and the bases empty in the fourth. In the fifth, Derek Martin singled to left field to score Baldridge from second. Baldridge reached base on a one-out walk and moved to second on Rademacher's single to center.
The Bulldogs knotted the game, as Pete Andrelczyk replaced Anderson on the hill for Coastal, and abruptly allowed a single to Burnich, who moved into scoring position on John Whited's sacrifice. Edmund Locklear pinch-hit for Henson, and sent Andrelcyk's second pitch over the right field wall to tie the game 3-3 on his fourth home run of the season.
But Asheville's momentum was short-lived with Coastal's eighth inning, as well as Chanticleers' freshman Nick McCully retiring all four batters he faced to collect the win and improve to 6-2. Asheville reliever Andrew Alexander took the loss for the Bulldogs.
Vernon saw his 18-game hit streak come to an end but he earned 1st Team All-Big South honors at the awards presentation prior to the High Point/Winthrop game. Vernon has at least one hit in 50 of 58 games the Bulldogs this season.
