ASHEVILLE, N.C.- #1 Coastal Carolina jumped on top early and never looked back, scoring a 9-4 win over #8 VMI in Game 1 of the 2009 Royal Purple Big South Conference Baseball Championship on Wednesday at McCormick Field. The Chanticleers (43-13) advance to take on the loser of Wednesday's #3 Liberty/#4 Radford contest, while the Keydets (18-34) will play an elimination game against the loser of Wednesday's #2 Winthrop/#6 High Point tilt on Thursday at 11 a.m.
Chanticleer leadoff hitter Rico Noel reached base safely in each of his five plate appearances, doing so with two doubles, a triple and twice being hit by a pitch. He scored a pair of runs and drove in three for the nation's 18th-ranked squad.
Coastal Carolina starting pitcher Nick McCully (7-1) worked six innings, allowing just an unearned run on four hits. Keydet starter Chris Henderson (3-7) took the loss, allowing six runs on eight hits in three-plus innings.
“I thought that Chris Henderson competed without his best stuff today,” said VMI head coach Marlin Ikenberry. “They jumped on us early and we didn't want to extend him too much, with the hopes we can bring him back in a day or two. I was proud of how the offense fought back and how Andrew Deal went out and pitched as a freshman against the #18 team in the country.”
The Chanticleers jumped on top in the first inning, when Adam Rice's home run to left field chased home Noel to make the score 2-0. Henderson escaped the second inning without allowing a run, but was not as fortunate in the third, when Daniel Bowman plated David Anderson with an infield single, followed by Jose Iglesias' two-run double to left-center field.
Coastal Carolina made it a 6-0 margin in the fourth, as Noel's leadoff triple chased Henderson from the contest. Rice delivered a sacrifice fly in the following at bat against reliever Adam Kruithof, who induced an inning-ending double play two batters later to escape the rally.
The Keydets broke the shutout in the fifth, as Graham Sullivan led off the frame with his second base hit in as many trips to the plate. Two batters later, Brian Sandridge hit a hot-shot to third base, and was ruled out on a swipe tag on a poor throw to first base. The umpires then overturned the call and ruled Sandridge safe, reaching on a throwing error by Tyler Bortnick. That extended the inning long enough for A.J. Yoder to notch his second hit of the day, a single into shallow left-center field that plated Sullivan.
That was all VMI could muster against McCully, though he got three more runs of support in the fifth. Kruithof retired the first two batters in the fifth inning on flyouts, then issued a pair of walks that sandwiched a Steve Davis single. With the bases loaded, Noel delivered his triple off of the scoreboard in right-center field, giving the Chants a 9-1 advantage.
The Keydets rallied in the eighth, scratching across three runs that were charged to reliever Keith Hessler. Tanner Biagini opened the inning with his first hit of the day, a single through the left-side of the infield, followed by a two-bagger off of the center field wall. Jordan Ballard next delivered an RBI single to chase Hessler from the contest.
Brad Goldberg came on and struck out the first batter he faced, then induced a run-scoring groundout from Sullivan. Freshman Michael Devine entered as a pinch-hitter in the next at bat, and slugged a deep flyball that hit no more than a foot from the top of the 40-foot-high scoreboard in right-center field, but was held to just an RBI single, bringing the margin to 9-4. The Keydets rallied with a pair of base runners in the ninth, but were held scoreless by reliever Caleb Cuevas.
VMI freshman Andrew Deal worked the final three scoreless innings for the Keydets, allowing no hits and just one walk. Yoder and Sullivan each had a pair of knocks and an RBI for VMI, while Ballard accounted for the team's other run driven in.
