CCU Walker Mitchell scores regional

Coastal Carolina's Walker Mitchell scores a run听against Fairfield during the Conway Regional on May 30, 2025 at Springs Brooks Stadium in Conway. (By Mike Duprez/info@myhorrynews.com)

Coastal Carolina was disappointed it didn鈥檛 receive a top-eight national seed to allow it to host a Super Regional.

Instead, the 13th-seeded Chanticleers have an opportunity to prove their mettle this weekend in an NCAA Super Regional at No. 4 Auburn at Plainsman Park in Auburn, Alabama.

Coastal (51-11) has the most wins in the country and takes the nation鈥檚 longest winning streak of 21 games into the best-of-three series, with the winner advancing to the Men鈥檚 College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska, which begins on June 13.

鈥淲e鈥檙e two really good games from getting back to Omaha,鈥 CCU coach Kevin Schnall said.

The Super Regional opening game is at 9 p.m. (Eastern) June 6 and the teams are scheduled to play again at 3 p.m. Saturday, June 7. Both games are being broadcast on ESPN2. A time and broadcast network for a third game Sunday, if necessary, is to be determined.

The opening pitching matchup is expected to be Auburn senior righthander Samuel Dutton (7-3, 3.84 earned-run average) vs. CCU sophomore righty Cameron Flukey (7-1, 3.12).

Auburn (41-18) finished sixth in the Southeastern Conference, which set a record with 13 teams from one conference participating in the NCAA Tournament. The Tigers went 17-13 in league play and have gone 24-5 outside of its SEC regular season schedule.

鈥淲e鈥檝e already played 10 super regionals. This is our 11th,鈥 Auburn coach Butch Thompson said, referring to the challenge of his 10 SEC weekend series this season.

Both Coastal and Auburn advanced from their regionals without a loss.

After bowing out of the SEC tournament in its opening 3-2 loss to Texas A&M, the Tigers defeated Central Connecticut State, Stetson and N.C. State by a combined score of 28-11, including an 11-1 thumping of N.C. State in the final game. The Chants outscored Fairfield and East Carolina (twice) 29-9.

Auburn is in its fifth Super Regional overall and is one of six teams to reach four Super Regionals since 2018, all four under Thompson.

But the Tigers are hosting a Super Regional for the first time in program history, and are 28-6 at Plainsman Park this season, where they are hitting .339 and outscoring opponents 297-150.

The Tigers are 2-2 in super regional series and won back-to-back supers in 2019 and 2022.

The teams have met once in the postseason, with Auburn taking a 16-7 win over CCU in the opening game of the 2019 Atlanta Regional hosted by Georgia Tech.

The only time CCU reached the College World Series in 2016, when it won the national championship, it went through an SEC team on the road in a Super Regional, sweeping LSU by the scores of 11-8 and 4-3.

In Coastal鈥檚 other two previous Super Regionals in its now 21 NCAA tournament appearances, the Chants lost at North Carolina in 2008, and fell in a pair of one-run games to South Carolina in 2010 at Pelicans Ballpark in Myrtle Beach.

Scouting Auburn

The Tigers have a potent offense, with seven starting position players boasting batting averages above .300, including five at .325 or better led by All-SEC outfielder Ike Irish at .362.

Auburn also hits with power, with 86 home runs compared to CCU鈥檚 62. Irish leads the Tigers with 18 homers.

The Tigers have four players with between nine and 14 stolen bases, but don鈥檛 run nearly as much as the Chants with 64 steals in 82 attempts.

With Caden Bodine catching all but three of CCU鈥檚 62 games, Coastal opponents have only stolen 30 bases in 47 attempts.

Auburn has a 4.71 ERA as a staff with 561 strikeouts in 511 innings. Its likely No. 2 starter is freshman righty Christian Chatterton, who is 4-1 in 14 starts with a 4.47 ERA and 60 strikeouts in 52 1/3 innings. Its other three apparent options for starters have ERAs between 4.76 and 5.48.

Auburn has won 14 of its last 15 home games since April 5, and has won 10 straight home weekends dating back to the end of last season. The Tigers are 10-2 against ranked opponents at home, and 17-12 overall against ranked opponents this season.

Breaking down the Chants

Coastal鈥檚 pitching staff comes out of its regional with a 3.24 ERA on the season, which is more than 2.5 runs per game better than last year and more than three runs per game better than 2023, when CCU last hosted a regional and went 42-21. The staff has 560 strikeouts in 530 innings and an opponent batting average of .224.

The Chants have the second-best ERA and WHIP (walks and hits per inning pitched) in the country, and rode their pitching to a 1-0 win over ECU in the final game of the regional.

鈥淚t was really fitting to win a regional here at home and throw a shutout, because that鈥檚 what it鈥檚 been all year,鈥 Schnall said. 鈥淭his pitching staff has been unbelievable all year, and we pitched a shutout.鈥

CCU鈥檚 other likely starters this weekend are redshirt sophomore righty Jacob Morrison (11-0, 2.19) and redshirt senior righty Riley Eikhoff (6-2, 2.90). CCU鈥檚 starting weekend rotation is a combined 24-3 with a 2.72 ERA.

Eikhoff regional

Coastal Carolina's Riley Eikhoff throws a pitch in CCU's 1-0 win over East Carolina in the NCAA Conway Regional championship game Sunday. (Mike Duprez/info@myhorrynews.com)

Schnall said it鈥檚 the best pitching staff he has been around. 鈥淭here鈥檚 no question about it,鈥 he said. 鈥淲hat they did this year, for us to be where we鈥檙e at right now at 51-11, to win the Sun Belt Conference, to win the Sun Belt Conference tournament and now to sweep the regional, this pitching staff is the reason why we are in this position.鈥

The pitching has been complemented by an efficient offense.

After relying on power baseball in recent years, the Chants have gotten back to their roots with small ball this season to average 7.6 runs per game, which led the Sun Belt Conference.

CCU leads the nation in both hit-by-pitches with 165 and sacrifice flies with 40, is ninth nationally with 50 sacrifice bunts, and has also drawn 265 walks to have a robust team on-base percentage of .411. Coastal has also stolen 106 bases, which ranks in the top 50 in the country, on 133 attempts.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a freebie war,鈥 Thompson said. 鈥淭hey are celebrating every time they get a freebie and get on base and do things, and can we be competitive with that? . . .听It鈥檒l never be needed more than in a series like this to get ahead [of batters], stay ahead and use your head through counts and sequences.

鈥淭hey do some incredible things, and that freebie war if you continue to do that day in and day out, that鈥檚 how you win 21 in a row, that鈥檚 how you are so successful.鈥

Once on base, the Chants like to be aggressive on the base paths.

鈥淭here鈥檚 nobody in the country that practices base running more than us,鈥 Schnall said. 鈥. . . It鈥檚 a big component of our offense along with our short game. We pride ourselves on being aggressive. There are some times when our aggressiveness turns into outs. But if we continue to follow our philosophy, which we did all year long, a lot of really good things happen.

鈥淭his isn鈥檛 the exact offense we鈥檝e had in the past but they鈥檝e still found ways to score runs. I鈥檓 really proud of their overall buy-in since Day 1. But that鈥檚 the foundation coach [Gary] Gilmore left.鈥

The Chants are led offensively by junior catcher Bodine, who leads the team with a .329 average and 71 hits. Also batting above .300 are Colby Thorndyke, Sebastian Alexander, Ty Dooley and Dean Mihos, who hasn鈥檛 started in about a month but should be available this weekend.

Blake Barthol and Alexander lead the Chants in home runs with 12 and 10 respectively, while Thorndyke was named the MVP of the Conway Regional after hitting three of his four homers on the season in the three games.

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