For the Seinfeld fans reading this, LSU playing Coastal Carolina in the championship series of the College World Series is like how Jerry Seinfeld would greet Newman. Instead of saying “Hello, Newman,” it would be “Hello Coastal.”
Coastal Carolina left LSU fans disgusted in 2016 much like every time Seinfeld sees Newman.
It was in 2016 when the Chanticleers visited Alex Box Stadium for a Super Regional series and swept the Tigers for the program’s first ever trip to the College World Series. They walked off LSU in the second game, leaving the Tigers baseball team and their fans stunned.
Current LSU coach Jay Johnson is not immune to the Coastal Carolina pain. That same postseason it was Chanticleers who beat Johnson’s Arizona Wildcats in the championship series keeping Johnson from winning his first national championship.
Fast forward nine years later and the two programs meet again, and Johnson gets his second crack at Coastal Carolina in the championship series.
In 2016, Coastal Carolina was the Cinderella story, but they are not sneaking up on anyone this year.
The Chanticleers are 56-11 and they’ve won an amazing 26 games in a row. They easily won the Sun Belt Conference. They swept their own Regional and went to Auburn and swept the Tigers for their second trip to the CWS.
In Omaha, they defeated Arizona, Oregon State and Louisville by a combined score of 24-7.
They are second in the nation, with a team ERA of 3.20.
“Their pitchers throw strikes, they don’t give away lot, they play really sound defense, they do a great job getting the lead-off man on, they do a great job of running the bases, they do a great job in the bunting the game, those are like program traits,” Johnson said.
Coastal Carolina is not a home run hitting team. They’ve only hit 66 in 67 games, but they have set an NCAA single season record for the most hit batsmen with 176.
Walter Mitchell leads the way with 32 in 63 games. Every other game Mitchell is taking first base after he’s been hit by a pitch.
Once Coastal gets on base, they produce runs by playing small ball.
The Chants have 108 stolen bases, 57 sacrifice hits (8th highest in the country) and 40 sacrifice flies, which is tied for the most in the country.
They also have studs on the mound. Coastal Carolina’s three main starting pitchers have ERAs below 3.30, led by Jacob Morrison, who is 12-0 with a 2.08 ERA.
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Ryan Lynch is a lockdown closer with nine saves. In 31 innings, he’s only allowed two earned runs. Dominick Carbone has also been very good, 6-0 with a 2.47 ERA in 27 appearances.
LSU is the favorite to win, but Coastal is playing with a lot of confidence as they have not lost a game since April 22nd.