POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE
OMAHA, Neb. – Coastal Carolina continued its unblemished postseason run, winning its 26th-straight game to advance to the championship series at the College World Series. The Chanticleers outpaced Louisville, 11-3, in front of a crowd of 23,660 at Charles Schwab Field to become the second Sun Belt program to play for a national championship this season, joining Marshall men’s soccer.
Coastal Carolina will take on either LSU or Arkansas in the championship series, with LSU needing one win to earn a best-of-three date with the Chanticleers and Arkansas needing to win back-to-back games on Wednesday and Thursday to unseat the Tigers and advance.
The Chanticleers' 26-game winning streak is the longest-ever entering the championship round at the College World Series, surpassing the 77-year-old record 18-game winning streak entering the national championship by USC in 1948. The Sun Belt regular-season and tournament, Conway Regional and Auburn Super Regional champion Chanticleers have not lost a game since April 22.
“The Chanticleers are one of two teams in the entire country still playing. It's incredible, but it's not unbelievable,” said Sun Belt Coach of the Year Kevin Schnall. “And it's not unbelievable because we've got really good players, but the separator is these players are willing to drop "I" and "me" for "we" and "us." When you bring a group of people together with that mentality, this is what can happen—26-straight wins, a school-record 56 wins and 176 hit-by-pitches, an NCAA record broken today. Absolute selfless group that did incredible things this year.”
Louisville leadoff man sophomore shortstop Alex Alicea got the Cardinals going early, legging out an infield single and then stealing second to get into scoring position. Chanticleers starter senior righty Riley Eikhoff retired three-straight to strand him—sandwiching a pair of fly outs around a five-pitch strikeout.
Coastal Carolina worked through the full lineup in a six-run first inning that provided Eikhoff with plenty of breathing room. It took the Chanticleers just five batters to chase Louisville starter sophomore lefty Colton Hartman. Coastal Carolina junior catcher Caden Bodine hit a long leadoff single into the left field corner, before Hartman loaded the bases by hitting both senior outfielder Sebastian Alexander and junior second baseman Blake Barthol. A single down the right field line by sophomore third baseman Walker Mitchell drove in two, before a four-pitch walk to sophomore outfielder Blagen Pado loaded the bases once again.
Louisville called upon freshman righty Jake Schweitzer in relief and Chanticleers sophomore first baseman Colby Thorndyke proceeded to clear the bases with a three-RBI double into the gap in right center. After a three-pitch strikeout of junior designated hitter Dean Mihos, senior shortstop Ty Dooley singled up the middle to plate Thorndyke and give Coastal Carolina a 6-0 lead. Schweitzer induced a double-play ball off the bat of senior outfielder Wells Sykes to end the Chanticleers’ big inning.
Eikhoff and Schweitzer traded 1-2-3 innings—with a strikeout apiece—in the second.
After the first two Cardinals reached in the top of the third, Eikhoff induced an unassisted line-out double play to Barthol at second base and a fly out to Alexander in left field to end the Louisville threat. With two outs and two men on, Dooley grounded out to second to strand a pair of Chanticleers in the bottom half of the frame.
In the top of the fourth, Eikhoff used back-to-back strikeouts to work around a leadoff double. Sophomore lefty TJ Schlageter retired the Chanticleers in order in the bottom half of the inning.
With runners on the corners and two outs in the bottom of the fifth, Mihos lined a ball into the gap in right center, driving in two with his first triple of the season to make it 8-0 Chanticleers.
Louisville got on the board in the top of the sixth. Following back-to-back one-out singles on grounders to the left side of the infield, Cardinals freshman first baseman Tague Davis delivered an RBI double to right center, chasing Eikhoff. The Chanticleers turned to junior righty Matthew Potok in relief. Potok retired his first batter on his first pitch with a line out to Mitchell at third base, but then proceeded to concede back-to-back RBI singles through the right side of the infield. Sophomore lefty Hayden Johnson answered the second call to the bullpen and induced a fly out to Sykes in center field to preserve an 8-3 Coastal Carolina lead.
A two-out single by Barthol in the bottom of the sixth drove in Alexander—who had reached on a single through the right side and advanced to second on a balk—to run the Chanticleer tally to 9-3. Three consecutive free passes—on a walk and two hit by pitches—loaded the bases and then plated the 10th run of the ballgame for the Chanticleers, before a bases-loaded strikeout by Mihos ended the frame.
Johnson retired all seven Cardinals hitters he faced, working 1-2-3 seventh and eighth innings after recording the final out of the sixth to end the Louisville threat.
In the bottom of the eighth, Barthol drew a leadoff walk and came around to score on a two-out single to right field by Thorndyke to extend the Coastal Carolina margin to 11-3.
After the first two Cardinals reached—on a single and a walk—in the top of the ninth, sophomore lefty Dominick Carbone settled in. He registered a three-pitch strikeout for the first out of the inning and then carded consecutive ground outs to first to send the Chanticleers to the championship series.
When asked about playing for the national championship this weekend, Schall replied, “It really hasn't hit me yet. I'll be honest. I'm still trying to digest that game. I know we're going to the College World Series finals and whoever wins two out of three brings home a national championship. No, it hasn't really hit me yet because one of my flaws is I'm rarely satisfied. This is satisfying, but I'm not satisfied yet. These next two days are really critical if we're going to win a national championship.”
Eikhoff improved to 7-2 on the year, earning the victory to guarantee Coastal Carolina the two all-important off days prior to the best-of-three championship series.
With the win, Coastal Carolina improved to 56-11 on the season, leading the nation with 56 wins and a .836 winning percentage. The Chanticleers are the second Sun Belt team to compete in the College World Series (Louisiana 2000), the second to advance to the national semifinals (Louisiana 2000) and the first to advance to the championship series. In its second all-time trip to the College World Series (2016), Coastal Carolina will play for its second national championship.