It’s a Good Day to Be a Chanticleer

How Coastal Carolina had one of the best sports days in recent memory

On NBA Finals hangover week, I’m sure you’re expecting a blog about how LeBron James was able bring an end to a championship drought that has plagued the city for decades, or a blog about how Kyrie Irving was able to rise to the challenge and play the best basketball of his life to seal game seven. I am sure you also might be expecting a blog about how the Warriors squandered away one of the best seasons in NBA history by failing to win the title, or a blog filled with the internet’s classiest Crying Jordan memes.

Unfortunately, I am in no way qualified to write about basketball.

It was Coastal Carolina University, not the city of Cleveland, that was having one of the best sports days of this past decade on Sunday. CCU, located just south of Myrtle Beach in Conway, South Carolina is not known for much outside of its top Marine Biology school and mascot that got its name from a piece of literature written in the 14th century. But due to the fact that the school is rather small and does not play in a major conference, the mainstream U.S. sports fan is largely unaware of just how much athletic prowess that the Chanticleers have.

This unexpected greatness was on full display Sunday afternoon in two places that are not exactly close to campus: Oakmont, Pennsylvania and Omaha, Nebraska.

Dustin Johnson, who attended the school in the mid 2000’s and was a nationally ranked member of the golf team before going pro in 2007, became the first Coastal Carolina graduate to win a major golf tournament when he won the United States Open with a score of 4 under. The 6-foot-4-inch golfer was able to edge out names like Shane Lowry, Scott Piercy, and Jim Furyk on his way to a 3 stroke victory.

The win was certainly helped in part by the fact that Johnson hit his drives an amazing 30 yards further than the rest of the field. This statistic may seem trivial, but when you consider that only six golfers were able to maintain a score under par in the tournament, every yard counted. With this win under his belt, Johnson was able to move up to third overall in the world golf standings, something that even his father-in-law Wayne Gretzky would consider impressive.

Meanwhile in Omaha, it was the Coastal Carolina baseball team that took center stage at the nation’s top amateur tournament, the College World Series. Coming into the college baseball playoffs, the Chanticleers had already proven themselves by winning the Sunbelt Conference and accumulating over 40 wins. Despite this success, the team wasn’t taken very seriously by their competitors. This attitude quickly changed when Coastal made quick work of NC State and LSU in the Regional and Super Regional. All of this set up a date on Sunday night with the number 1 overall seed Florida Gators led by the 47th overall selection in this year’s MLB draft and SEC Pitcher of the Year Logan Shore.

Not to be outdone, Coastal Carolina sent their own ace, junior right hander Andrew Beckwith, to the mound in hopes that he would put up a good enough performance just to stay with the powerhouse Gators.

These expectations were shattered as not only did Beckwith keep pace with the Florida, but he was able to shut them down and make the best team in the country look absolutely clueless at the plate.

Tossing 9 innings of 1 run baseball with only 98 pitches, Chanticleers head coach Gary Gilmore said that his starter was absolutely magical in what he believed was the best game he ever threw.

Offensively, the Chants were lead by 3rd baseman Zach Remillard, who was responsible for driving in both runs in the 2–1 victory with an RBI double and triple respectively. This game was a shock to the 19,696 in attendance at TD Ameritrade Park, but not nearly as shocking to all of the Coastal Carolina fans in the ballpark and around the country who would be the first to tell you that after Dustin Johnson’s win earlier that night, they were used to the school’s hours old winning tradition. The Chanticleers will look to keep this success rolling this Tuesday when they face the Horned Frogs from Texas Christian University.