Conway, S.C.: One night after combining for twenty-five runs and thirty-three base hits, Coastal Carolina and East Carolina rolled back the clock on Sunday night in the Conway Regional final. In front of another capacity crowd at Springs-Brooks Stadium, Riley Eikhoff of CCU and Bradley Zayac of ECU engaged in a classic pitchers’ duel.
Each starter tossed 7.1 innings of dazzling baseball, with Zayac blinking first. He allowed a one-out SAC fly off the bat of Sebastian Alexander in the bottom of the eighth inning to score what proved to be the game-winning run as Coastal pulled out a 1-0 victory over the Pirates. The win, CCU’s 51st of the season, completed a three-game sweep of the Conway Regional and punched a ticket to the Super Regionals at Auburn next weekend. The 4th-seeded Tigers blew out NC State 11-1 on Sunday night to advance into the Supers.
Game Story Courtesy of CCU Media Relations: The Chanticleers (51-11) won their 21st-straight game overall and 13th-straight game at Springs Brooks Stadium to advance to the Super Regionals for the fourth time in program history and first since 2016.
The low-scoring affair featured standout pitching on both sides, highlighted by a combined shutout from Coastal’s Eikhoff and Dominick Carbone. Eikhoff scattered five hits and struck out five across 7.1 scoreless innings, while Carbone retired all five batters he faced — three via strikeout — to improve to 6-0 on the season.
Wellls Sykes sparked the go-ahead rally with a leadoff single in the eighth, advanced to second on a fly ball to center before moving to third on a wild pitch. Sykes scored on Alexander’s deep fly to center to seal CCU’s first 1-0 victory since May 13, 2018, against UALR.
Bradley Zayac was the hard-luck loser for East Carolina (35-27), allowing just one run on four hits over 7.1 innings.
CCU’s Conway Regional Game Results:
- Game 1: Coastal Carolina 10, Fairfield 2
- Game 2: Coastal Carolina 18, East Carolina 7
- Championship: Coastal Carolina 1, East Carolina 0
Coastal Carolina All-Tournament Selections:
- Most Outstanding Player: 1B Colby Thorndyke
- C: Caden Bodine
- OF: Sebastian Alexander
- OF: Wells Sykes
- P: Riley Eikhoff
Box Score
Kevin Schnall, Sebastian Alexander, Riley Eikhoff — NCAA Postgame
Coach Schnall’s closing comments are in regards to Florida head coach Kevin O’Sullivan and this incident prior to the Gators elimination game against East Carolina. The first pitch of that contest was moved from noon to 1pm on Sunday by the NCAA.
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