MOBILE, Ala. | South Alabama had the tying run at the plate in the bottom of the ninth inning before No. 8 Coastal Carolina was able to hold on for a 14-11 Sun Belt Conference victory at Eddie Stanky Field on Saturday afternoon.
Coastal Carolina (32-17, 19-7 SBC) jumped out to a 12-3 lead five before South Alabama (23-26, 11-15 SBC) battled back with a pair of two-run innings (including the ninth) and a four-run seventh.
Micah Morgan led South Alabama at the plate, going 4-for-5 with three RBI and a pair of doubles, while
Erick Orbeta finished 3-for-6. Both
Will Turner and
Jackson Howard each finished with a pair of hits in the loss.
Jeremy Lee (2-7), the first of five pitchers, suffered the loss in the start.
How It Happened
- (T2) Zack Beach scored on a wild pitch to open the scoring before Payton Eeles singled to right field to bring home a pair, Coastal Carolina 3-0.
- (B2) Micah Morgan hit a two-out double to left center to score JG Bell from first, Coastal Carolina 3-1.
- (T3) Derek Bender hit a one-out, two-run home run to left to extend the lead before Jake Books lifted a sacrifice fly to right to score Nick Lucky, Coastal Carolina 6-1.
- (T4) Caden Bodine singled up the middle to score Blake Barthol with two outs in the inning, Coastal Carolina 7-1.
- (B4) Morgan doubled to right center to score Tyler Borges with two outs in the inning before Diego Altamirano doubled to right to score Morgan, Coastal Carolina 7-3.
- (T5) Ty Dooley drove in Lucky with a sacrifice fly to center before Barthol singled through the right side to score Beach. Graham Brown doubled down the right field with the bases loaded to plate three more runs, Coastal Carolina 12-3.
- (B5) Borges hit a two-run home run to left to trim the deficit, Coastal Carolina 12-5.
- (B7) Bell singled to center with the bases loaded to score Will Turner with nobody out in the inning before Jackson Howard scored on a double play. Morgan drove in another run with a single up the middle to score Joseph Sullivan before Erick Orbeta singled to center to score Morgan, Coastal Carolina 12-9.
- (T8) Bodine hit a lead-off home run to right, Coastal Carolina 13-9.
- (T9) Bender singled up the middle to score Eeles from third, Coastal Carolina 14-9.
- (B9) Borges scored on an RBI groundout by Cole Ketzner before Austin Thrasher brought home Ketzner with an RBI single to right, Coastal Carolina 14-11.
Up Next
The two teams will meet for game three of the series tomorrow morning at 11 am inside Stanky Field, celebrating Senior Day prior to the start of the game.
Quotable, head coach Mark Calvi
General Statement …
"It's unfortunate, it's just unfortunate. Again we left too many runners on base and we didn't pitch nearly well enough. We gave up 14 runs, you can't win games like that. You can't win games walking five, hitting three against good teams, and leaving that many runners on base. Our guys competed until the end, they came out ready to go. We got in a hole early, 6-1 through three, and our guys climbed out of it. We just couldn't pitch enough to stop them. We knew exactly what they are. To quote Dennis Green – 'they are who we thought they were.' You have to get your leadoff outs, you can't hit guys, you can't walk guys, and you can't squander opportunities, and that is what we have done the last two games. Again, our guys competed we just squandered some opportunities offensively. And on the mound, we had guys 0-2 to walk, 0-2 hit by pitch, 0-2 hits, we just haven't played well enough to beat a good team."
Tomorrow, Senior Day …
"We have to do everything opposite of what we have done the last 18 innings. We need to drive runners in, we need to get the big hit, we need to make the big pitch. That's what we need to do. It's not a competitive thing, guys show up with energy and are ready to play. You can see that. When the game requires us to do the little things, we haven't gotten them done, and we have paid for it."
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