Chants win series against No. 24 Golden Eagles
Senior Graham Brown swinging at the baseball in the bottom of the first inning against the University of Southern Mississippi.
The Coastal Carolina University baseball team won the weekend series from April 21-23 against the University of Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles. The series win comes after the Chanticleers were ranked iNo. 6 in the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
In the first game of the series, Coastal crushed the University of Southern Mississippi 15-7. The game was highlighted by three home runs from CCU, including two from sophomore Derek Bender.
The series victory had some students very happy with how the baseball team is playing.
“It’s always enjoyable seeing the Chants play baseball, and it’s awesome that they won this series against a ranked team,” Senior Rebecca Harbin said. “Moments like these make me very proud to be a Chanticleer.”
The winning pitcher was sophomore Matthew Potok (3-2), who only gave up three runs in six complete innings.
Coastal had already won the series after beating the Golden Eagles 20-7 in the second game. The Chanticleers once again hit three home runs, including a grand slam by senior Zack Beach.
Sophomore Darin Horn (2-1) was awarded the victory after only giving up one run during the one inning that he pitched. Following the blowout, Coastal became 21-0 on the season when they score 10 or more runs in a single game.
However, the final game of the series did not go Coastal’s way. CCU fell 7-15 to the Golden Eagles after the defense collapsed late in the game. In the top of the eighth inning, the Chanticleers gave up five runs, allowing Southern Miss to take a commanding lead and win the game.
Despite their one loss against Southern Miss, the Chanticleers have yet to lose a season series this year.
Junior Teddy Sharkey (4-1) was given his first loss of the season after giving up five runs.
After their three games against Southern Miss, the No. 10 Chanticleers are now 26-12 overall and 13-5 in Sun Belt Conference play. The baseball team will be on the road for their next four games and will return to Spring Brooks Stadium on May 2 to take on the 49ers from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
