Coastal Carolina’s 6-2 win over Oregon State at College World Series extends its streak to 25 games
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Coastal Carolina’s unbeaten Jacob Morrison was dominant into the eighth inning and the Chanticleers capitalized on Oregon State’s early mistakes to extend their win streak to 25 games with a 6-2 victory in the College World Series on Sunday night.
Morrison went 7 2/3 innings for his longest outing in over two months. The 6-foot-8, 245-pound right-hander retired 16 straight over the middle innings and left with two outs in the eighth after allowing five hits, walking none and striking out seven.
“For us to play like that on this stage, pretty darn remarkable,” coach Kevin Schnall said. “These guys were unbelievable tonight and then Jacob Morrison — winner’s win.”
Coastal Carolina had to win five elimination games on its way to the 2016 national championship in its CWS debut. The Sun Belt Conference’s team of teal hadn’t been back to Omaha until this year, and its 2-0 start puts them in control of their bracket.
The Chanticleers (55-11) would advance to the best-of-three finals with another win Wednesday. Their opponent will be either Louisville or Oregon State (48-15-1), which meet in an elimination game Tuesday.
Morrison (12-0) had a 3-0 lead when he went to the mound for the bottom of the first. All three runs were unearned and the result of an unusual sequence of events.
Leadoff man Caden Bodine reached on star shortstop Aiva Arquette’s throwing error — only his sixth error of the season but second in two games — and went to second on a balk by Ethan Kleinschmit (8-5). The next batter, Sebastian Alexander, was down 0-2 in the count when he was called out for not being alert to the pitcher, as required, when the 20-second clock hit 8.
Blake Barthol walked and Walker Mitchell and Blagen Pado were hit by pitches, but Pado was called out for not trying to get out of the way. Colby Thorndyke then delivered a two-out, bases-clearing double into the right-center gap.
“We had a hit by pitch that didn’t go our way, which became two outs with bases loaded, and I came up in the same situation earlier in the season and didn’t get it done,” Thorndyke said. “I knew if I could get any runs in, and with Jacob on the mound, it would give our dugout confidence.”
Oregon State’s Easton Talt homered leading off the third to make it a two-run game, but the Chanticleers pulled away by scoring on an error and wild pitch in the fourth. It was 6-1 in the fifth when Thorndyke was hit by a pitch and scored from first on Dean Mihos’ double.
Morrison’s streak of 16 straight retired batters got rolling after Talt’s homer and consecutive flies to the warning track by Arquette and Gavin Turley.
“I don’t know if I was nervous the first time through the order,” Morrison said, “but it was awesome seeing long fly balls caught in right and left field. I settled in and was very confident after that.”
The Beavers went into the NCAA Tournament seventh nationally in fielding (.982) with just 35 errors in 54 games. They’ve committed 10 errors in 10 games since, including five in their first two CWS games.
Two errors on the same play led them to blowing a ninth-inning lead against Louisville in their CWS opener Friday. They survived that, scoring in the bottom of the ninth for a 4-3 walk-off win.
Oregon State wouldn’t overcome its two errors, two hit batters, two wild pitches and six walks Sunday. Turley hit his 20th homer leading off the bottom of the ninth against Hayden Johnson, and the Chanticleers had to call on closer Ryan Lynch to get the last out when the Beavers put two runners on base. The Chanticleers improved to 42-0 when leading after six innings.
“Six walks, we can’t do that. Hit by pitch or two, again, that ain’t going to work,” Beavers coach Mitch Canham said. “Minimizing mistakes is important. I anticipate us going out and playing cleaner baseball Tuesday.”
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