The Coastal Carolina University baseball team started the season with a 26-0 win over George Mason University (GMU) on Friday, Feb. 16 at Springs Brooks Stadium.
George Mason came to Conway as the reigning Atlantic 10 Conference Champions and were looking for a positive start to the season after reaching the postseason in 2023.
Henry Weycker, graduate transfer pitcher, is entering his first season at Coastal while getting his master’s degree in commercial real estate. Weycker said he is looking forward to a successful season, starting with the game against GMU.
“Just get going early, just get started with a bang. I have full confidence in the hitters, full confidence in our pitchers to do that and just getting the season started off right with a win tomorrow,” Weycker said before the game.
The rest of the team lived up to Weycker’s expectations as Coastal jumped out to an early lead in the first few innings.
The Chants went ahead 6-0 after the first inning after a grand slam from sophomore first baseman Jake Books. Junior catcher Derek Bender hit another grand slam in the third inning, and graduate student infielder Zack Beach added a home run to make the score 13-0 after three innings.
Senior biology major Saneywongse Le Mar said the atmosphere at the games keeps her coming back.
“I really like that we have our own student section that’s just a lawn where all students can like sit and watch the game with a really good view,” Le Mar said.
While the Chants’ offense stole the headlines, their pitching kept GMU off the scoreboard. Redshirt sophomore Riley Eikhoff started on the mound and pitched six innings with three strikeouts.
Senior business marketing major Lainy Powell said she was excited to be there for opening day and is looking forward to watching the team this season.
“I have a feeling our team’s gonna do really, really well this year, so I kinda wanna watch them develop throughout the season,” Powell said.
