TCU tops Coastal Carolina, sends Chants to CWS losers bracket

Just as it was for Coastal Carolina in a momentous win over Florida in its College World Series opener, the margin for error was slim Tuesday night as the Chanticleers took on TCU in the winners matchup for their side of the bracket.

And unfortunately for the Chants, they weren’t so crisp this time.

TCU took the lead on a second-inning solo home run from surging slugger Luken Baker and then took advantage of a costly Coastal Carolina error to launch a two-run fifth while gaining some separation on the way to a 6-1 win over the Chants before a crowd of 22,704 at TD Ameritrade Park.

After defeating top-seeded Florida, 2-1, on Sunday while showing they weren’t just content to be making their first-ever appearance on this stage, the Chants (50-17) now move to 1-1 in the College World Series and will play Texas Tech (47-19) in an elimination game Thursday at 8 p.m. ET.

The Horned Frogs (49-16), who are making their third straight College World Series appearance, will await the winner on Friday night and will have to be beaten twice by whichever that team is to keep them from advancing to the best-of-three final series against the winner from the other bracket.

“My frustration is even though we won a game [Sunday] we had to have a heroic pitching effort to get it done. We’re a better team than what we’ve shown with base running and especially defensively tonight,” Chants coach Gary Gilmore said. “Everything we did good the other night we short-circuited tonight, so hopefully we can come back Thursday and compete and show everybody how we actually got here.”

The game was plenty competitive for a while Tuesday night, but Coastal Carolina simply didn’t have the offense to overcome its multiple miscues.

Junior right-hander Alex Cunningham got the Chants off to a strong start while allowing just that solo home run to Baker through four innings, but the top of the fifth started ominously as Josh Watson singled through the left side and senior third baseman Zach Remillard then threw the ball in the dirt toward second while trying to start a double play on a grounder from Dane Steinhagen.

That gave the Horned Frogs runners on first and third, they quickly loaded the bases on a walk to Ryan Merrill and after the first out added to their lead on a four-pitch walk to Austen Wade.

Just like that, Cunningham was out of the game as the Chants went to the bullpen to call on Bobby Holmes.

“I’m not pleased nor am I satisfied. I’ve just got to do better, simple as that,” Cunningham said. “In the fifth we had an error that kind of gave the momentum to TCU. [I] had a lot of pressure pitches, but I’ve just got to do better. No excuses.”

With the bases still loaded and one out – a similarly pivotal situation to one the sophomore reliever faced at Louisiana State in the NCAA super regionals – Holmes got Cam Warner to hit a groundball that Remillard nabbed on a diving stop to his left and threw to second. It would have been a poetic ending to the inning for Remillard to start a double play there, but Warner beat the throw to first as another run scored.

It stayed a 3-0 game when Kevin Woodall Jr. made a nice lunging stop down the first base line, but the Chants weren’t out of trouble for long.

In the top of the sixth Baker and Elliott Barzilli led off with back-to-back singles and Watson drew a walk to load the bases again. Holmes got Steinhagen to ground into a 6-4-3 double play, but another run scored in the process to make it 4-0.

Again, the Chants minimized damage as Woodall made another nice play at first ranging to his right and tossing to Holmes to end the inning, but they faced a significant deficit they wouldn’t make much of a dent in the rest of the way.

“I mean, at the end of the day, TCU played way better than we did across the board,” Gilmore said. “If we play like that again Thursday I expect to be flying home Thursday night or Friday morning. We have to play better. We have to do a lot of things, and in all honesty if you replay that game maybe we still lose or whatever, but we don’t make the [base-running] mistake at second base [in the third inning], we dump the ball into right, it’s a 1-1 game. I mean, we got a two-hopper to third that in all honesty Zach will be the first one to tell you, ‘I should make that play 1,000 times out of 1,000.’ It should have been a double-play ball, we throw it into the outfield and then follow up with a walk.”

It also didn’t help Coastal Carolina that its offense continued to scuffle Tuesday night.

When it was still a 1-0 game in the third, the Chants opened the bottom of that inning with a leadoff single from Woodall and a sacrifice bunt by Matt Beaird to move him to second. But Woodall took off for third on an Anthony Marks grounder to Merrill, and the TCU shortstop quickly fired to the bag to nab Woodall for the second out of the inning.

That was the base-running miscue Gilmore was lamenting after the game because Michael Paez followed with a single to right that would have otherwise plated the tying run. Marks made a heads-up play to take third on that hit when the right fielder bobbled the ball, but the inning would end when Paez was caught stealing at second on a bang-bang call.

Gilmore clarified afterward that it was a straight steal and Paez was not supposed to induce a rundown to allow Marks to score there.

“We were just trying to steal. We were running at third. I thought he could steal a bag. I hadn’t seen the replay, it was awful close just watching it at full speed,” Gilmore said. “I’m smart enough to realize that trying to just steal one run here and there, it’s probably going to be a struggle to compete with these guys. I thought Mike had a good jump and they just made a hair better play than we did.”

G.K. Young would later be left stranded on second after a two-out double in the fourth as TCU starter Brian Howard picked up three of his seven strikeouts in that inning.

Coastal Carolina finally broke through in the bottom of the sixth, sparked by a leadoff double from Paez who came into score on a two-out RBI single to center by Young.

A walk to Billy Cooke spelled the end of Howard’s night as the 6-foot-9 righty left after 5 2/3 innings, having allowed six hits, three walks and one run with those seven strikeouts.

Reliever Ryan Burnett got Tyler Chadwick to line out to left to end that threat in the sixth and would go on to retire all 10 batters he faced to close it out after TCU added two runs in the top of the ninth (aided by another throwing error charged to Remillard).

“It’s just one of those days where unless somebody puts a swing on a ball, it’s one of those frustrating days,” Gilmore said. “We haven’t had many of those, especially since [losing three games at] Georgia Tech we haven’t had hardly any games like that so we’ll see. It’s been one of the most resilient groups I’ve ever coached and we’ll see how we come out and play Thursday.”

Cunningham (9-4) took the loss, allowing three runs – only one earned – in 4 1/3 innings, while yielding four hits, two walks and striking out three.

Paez and Young each went 2-for-4 for the Chants offensively.

Howard improved to 10-2 with the win for TCU.

Now the Chants will try to extend this special season as they face Texas Tech – which eliminated Florida with a 3-2 win Tuesday – with their backs to the wall Thursday night.

“We’re very confident we can do that. We’ve shown time and time again that we can have a bad game and bounce back and put it on some people. So I’m not worried about this game,” Young said. “I believe the next game we’ll come out and we’ll show that we can play ball. We haven’t shown our ability yet to hit in this ballpark and I think it’s coming. ...

“We’ve just got to play smarter baseball. We can come out and flip the switch and change the game in a heartbeat. We’ve done it time and time again.”

This story was originally published June 22, 2016 at 8:28 AM with the headline "TCU tops Coastal Carolina, sends Chants to CWS losers bracket."