— By David Walsh
Coastal Carolina struck early for a four-run lead, then held off a Marshall comeback try in the late innings to notch the win, 4-2, Thursday night in the Sun Belt Conference Tournament at Riverwalk Stadium in Montomery, Ala.
The 11th-ranked Chanticleers (46-11), seeded No. 1 in this event, extended their winning streak to 16 games and 20 in a row against Sun Belt opponents. Their last loss came April 22 at College of Charleston. The league’s regular-season champion now get a day off as they stay in the winner’s bracket.
Marshall (32-25) saw its winning streak end at seven. The Thundering Herd offense, which had produced runs at a high rate in the win streak, collected nine hits, but couldn’t deliver in key spots.
The Herd strung together four hits in the eighth for its two runs and had runners on second and third with two outs. Ryan Lynch came on in relief, the third reliever in the inning, and struck out Ethan Murdoch on a 3-2 pitch to end that threat. He retired Marshall in order in the ninth for his sixth save and to preserve the win for teammate Cameron Flukey, who struck out 10 in seven innings and improved to 6-1.
Flukey also got a win over the Herd when Coastal Carolina scored a regular-season sweep at home just over a month ago.
Marshall, now in the elimination round, returns to action Friday against Louisiana at 7:30 p.m. The Herd opened the tournament with a 9-5 win over the Ragin’ Cajuns on Wednesday.
Griffin Miller (7-4) started for Marshall, went four innings and did not have his best stuff. He allowed four hits, four runs, walked five and balked in a run. Peyton Jackson worked three scoreless innings in relief and Lance Proehl held the Chanticleers scoreless in the eighth.
Coastal Carolina scored a run in the first without a hit. Miller walked two and uncorked two wild pitches. That set up Walker Mitchell to drive home a run on a sacrifice fly. Miller then got a fly out to left and strikeout to end the inning and limit the damage.
The Chanticleers struck for three runs in the second. Blagen Pado led off with a single, then Ty Barrango walked and Wells Sykes got hit by pitch. Caden Bodine lofted a sacrifice fly to left. Sebastian Alexander followed with a run-scoring single and the third run in the inning scored on a balk by Miller.
“The bottom line is we gave them too many freebies early,” Marshall head coach Greg Beals said. “Against a really good team like they are, you can’t help them out and we helped them out early in the ballgame.”
In the fourth, Coastal Carolina loaded the bases with one runner getting hit by a pitch. Miller then got Blake Barthol to ground out to second to end the threat.
Through seven innings, Marshall’s 1-5 hitters were 0-for-12.
“Offensively, a slow start for us,” Beals said. “Their starter is obviously a very good college pitcher and give him credit. We missed some pitches that we’d like to have back.”
The Herd bats came to life in the eighth after its first two batters were retired. Jackson Halter, Maika Niu, AJ Havrilla and Eddie Leon record successive singles with Havrilla and Leon driving in a run each.
Dominick Cartbone, a lefty, took over from Flukey to start the eighth and faced three batters. Scott Doran then came on and Herd batters handled him. On came Lynch, a righty, to fan Murdoch and all but dash comeback hopes.
Each Marshall starter had one hit. The Chanticleers managed seven with Barthol getting two.
Coastal Carolina beat Georgia Southern, 9-1, in its tournament opener Wednesday.