Chants up! Coastal baseball stays undefeated in Omaha, to face LSU in CWS finals

Powered by a six-run first inning, Coastal Carolina clinched a berth in the championship finals of the College World Series with an 11-3 victory over Louisville on Wednesday.

As the Bracket 1 champions, the Chanticleers (56-11) will play LSU from Bracket 2 in the best-of-three championship series that begins at 7 p.m. Saturday at Charles Schwab Field.

Coastal is two victories away from the program’s second CWS championship. The Chants won the 2016 national title. CCU is 9-2 all-time at the College World Series.

Blake Barthol scored three runs, and Sebastian Alexander, Walker Mitchell and Colby Thorndyke all scored two runs in CCU’s rout of the Cardinals, who ended their season 41-24.

The victory, before a crowd of 23,660, extended Coastal’s winning streak to 26 games heading into the CWS championship series.

“It’s incredible, but it’s not unbelievable,” Coastal coach Kevin Schnall said. “It’s not unbelievable because we’ve got really good players. But the separator is these players are willing to drop ‘I and me’ for ‘we and us.’

“When you bring a group of people together with that mentality, this is what can happen.”

What happened Wednesday was that the Chants faced seven Louisville pitchers, with none of those hurlers lasting longer than 2.1 innings. Cardinals starter Colton Hartman faced just five batters and didn’t record an out.

Hartman’s line included two hits, two hit batters, one walk and five earned runs on just 17 pitches. Only six of those offerings went for strikes as Hartman’s ERA ballooned to 11.65.

Even by their own high standards, the Chants’ first inning was remarkable.

It began with a leadoff single down the left field line by catcher Caden Bodine. The next two batters — Alexander and Barthol — were hit by pitches to load the bases.

Barthol’s ball caught him in an unusual spot. After squaring up to bunt, the ball went under the second baseman’s bat and caught him in the middle of his chest. Unfazed, Barthol happily trotted to first to load the bases for Mitchell.

Coastal’s third baseman took his cleanup hitter duties to heart, stroking a single down the right field line to bring home Bodine and Alexander for the Chants’ first two runs. Hartman then walked Blagen Pado on four pitches.

That turned out to be the final batter Hartman faced. Louisville coach Dan McDonnell knew a change was needed in what was an elimination game for the Cardinals, so he tapped freshman Jake Schweitzer to replace Hartman on the mound.

Just four pitches into his appearance, Schweitzer gave up a 3-RBI double to right-center to CCU first baseman Colby Thorndyke that put the Chants ahead 5-0. Thorndyke then scored on a two-out single up the middle by Ty Dooley to give Coastal a 6-0 lead.

“We always preach scoring first,” Thorndyke said. “Any time you have a chance to score first you’ll get a bunch of momentum dumped in your dugout. This time Walker made it easy on me. He didn’t make me do it with no runs scored.

“We always preach when the bases are loaded, the pressure is on the pitcher. It’s not on the hitter. He’s got to throw three strikes. If he throws four balls then it’s a run. When you stick to your approach and you believe that, it makes it easier.”

The score remained 6-0 until the bottom of the fifth when a triple by Dean Mihos plated Mitchell and Thorndyke, who reached on a one-out walk and a two-out single to right-center, respectively, for an 8-0 Coastal lead.

That triple by Mihos came off the first pitch from Jack Brown, Louisville’s fourth pitcher, who had just come in for TJ Schlageter.

All that run support was more than enough for Coastal starter Riley Eikhoff to get settled and find a groove that helped him earn a win in his second start of this CWS. The Chants emerged victorious in the five postseason games Eikhoff has started.

Before giving up two singles and an RBI double in the top of the sixth, Eikhoff had given up just four hits.

“The offense goes out there and gives you a big lead, it’s big pressure off yourself,” Eikhoff said. “I made quite a few pitches today, and the defense made great plays behind me. I wouldn’t say I was running out of gas, I just lost some feel.”

Louisville first baseman Tague Davis drove home Jake Munroe with the Cardinals’ first run with a double to right-center. Then with two outs Garret Pike and Kamau Neighbors hit back-to-back RBI singles to slice Coastal’s lead to 8-3.

CCU rebuilt its lead to eight runs by scoring twice in the sixth inning and adding its final run in the eighth.

“It’s impressive the streak they’re on,” McDonnell said. “It’s just not easy to win that consistently in baseball. In college, yeah, there are teams that can stack up a bunch of wins.

“These guys, they’ve done it in the last half of the season, in the conference tournament, in the regionals, in supers, in Omaha, against the best teams. It’s impressive what they’ve done.”

College World Series schedule, scores

Friday, June 13 (Bracket 1)

Game 1: Coastal Carolina 7, Arizona 4

Game 2: Oregon State 4, vs. Louisville 3

Saturday, June 14 (Bracket 2)

Game 3: UCLA 6, vs. Murray State 4

Game 4: LSU 4, Arkansas 1

Sunday, June 15 (Bracket 1)

Game 5: Louisville 8, Arizona 3

Game 6: Coastal Carolina 6, Oregon State 2

Monday, June 16 (Bracket 2)

Game 7: Arkansas 3, Murray State 0

Game 8: LSU 9, UCLA 5

Tuesday, June 17 (Brackets 1-2)

Game 9: Louisville 7, Oregon State 6

Game 10: Arkansas 7, UCLA 3

Wednesday, June 18 (Brackets 1-2)

Game 11: Coastal Carolina 11, Louisville, 3

Game 12: LSU 6, Arkansas 5

Saturday, June 21

CWS Finals Game 1, Coastal Carolina vs. LSU, 7 p.m. (ESPN)

Sunday, June 22

CWS Finals Game 2, Coastal Carolina vs. LSU, 2:30 p.m. (ABC)

Monday, June 23

CWS Finals Game 3 (if necessary), Coastal Carolina vs. LSU, 7:30 pm. (ESPN)

This story was originally published June 18, 2025 at 5:45 PM.