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Coastal Carolina is one win away from reaching an NCAA Super Regional for the first time since the Chanticleers won the national championship in 2016.

A Colby Thorndyke grand slam broke a tie in the seventh inning and the Chants poured it on from there to defeat East Carolina 18-7 Saturday night in front of a Springs Brooks Stadium record attendance of 6,423, as there was nary an empty seat or open space.

The Chants extended the nation鈥檚 longest winning streak to 20 games and now await the winner of a loser鈥檚 bracket elimination game at noon Sunday afternoon between Florida (39-21) and ECU (34-26).

The winner of that game will have to defeat the Chants on Sunday night in a 6 p.m. start, then again Monday in order to keep Coastal from advancing.

"We're not done yet," CCU coach Kevin Schnall said. "We came here to win three games and we have one more to go."

Florida survived an elimination game Saturday afternoon with a 17-2 win over Fairfield.

Coastal (50-11) has 50 wins for the sixth time in program history, and first since the historic 2016 season.听

Coastal has reached three super regionals among its now 21 NCAA regional appearances. The Chants lost at North Carolina in 2008, fell in a pair of one-run games to South Carolina in 2010 at Pelicans Ballpark in Myrtle Beach, and defeated LSU in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in two games in 2016.

Sophomore first baseman Thorndyke, senior outfielder Sebastian Alexander and sophomore outfielder Blagen Pado were the hitting stars, as each had four hits.

Thorndyke had a pair of home runs, six RBI and five runs scored; Alexander had a home run, double and four RBI, and Pado had a home run, double and three RBI.

Caden Bodine added three hits, as the Chants set single-game season highs with 20 hits, four home runs and 18 runs, which is their most runs in a regional since scoring 25 against Stony Brook in 2010.

"It was a little bit different way that we won tonight than what we've been doing here recently," Schnall said. "We've been really relying heavily on the pitching staff and the offense really responded in a big way.

"I was really proud how they were able to respond. Every inning that East Carolina scored . . . we scored every single inning from the sixth inning on."

CCU redshirt sophomore Jacob Morrison (11-0), the Sun Belt Conference Pitcher of the Year, did not have his dominant stuff but managed to get through five innings, allowing seven hits and four runs with five strikeouts and no walks.

In relief of Morrison, Matthew Potok allowed three runs on six hits in 2 2/3 innings and Darin Horn recorded the final four outs without recording a hit.

Despite the lopsided score, the Chants trailed before they posted six runs in the seventh inning.

Alexander homered to left-center to lead off the inning, and after Walker Mitchell reached on a throwing error, Blake Barthol singled and pinch-hitter Ty Barrango was hit by a pitch to load the bases with no outs. Thorndyke deposited the first pitch he saw over the right field fence with his second towering drive to right of the game.

The Chants added another run in the inning on a Bodine RBI double and tacked on five more in the eighth and three more in the ninth.

Thorndyke did his damage against his former team, as the former Green Sea Floyds High School player spent a year at East Carolina before attending Brunswick Community College 鈥� where he was the听JUCO Division II Player of the Year听鈥� and finding his way to Conway.

"I had a lot of emotion. It was the biggest crowd I've ever played in front of, so that had a lot to do with it," Thorndyke said. "I know I needed to produce. We talk about it all the time and there have been times I didn't produce as I should and I think I finally came through."

A tight contest early

CCU scored first on a Thorndyke homer to right field in the top of the second inning, as ECU was the home team for the game. Teams alternate being home and away throughout the regional.

ECU took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the fourth on a Dixon Williams single, one-out bunt single, Colby Wallace grounder up the middle that hit Morrison鈥檚 foot and scored Williams, and RBI double into the right field corner by Austin Irby. Morrison struck out Alex Peltier on three pitches to escape further damage.

CCU regained the lead in the top of the fifth when Ty Dooley walked and stole second, Caden Bodine reached on a one-out error, Sebastian Alexander pulled a ground ball just inside the third-base bag for an RBI double that left runners on second and third, and Bodine scored on a Walker Mitchell groundout.

A two-run homer by Williams, who leads the Pirates with 14 on the season, gave ECU a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the fifth.

Coastal loaded the bases with one out in the sixth but managed just one run on a sacrifice fly by Wells Sykes. A Bodine slicing liner in the left-center field with two outs was chased down by Peltier in left field to end the half-inning.

A solo homer by Austin Irby in the bottom of the sixth gave ECU a 5-4 lead before the Chants erupted in the seventh.

In the eighth, Pado had an RBI double and Alexander had a two-run single down the left field line, and in the ninth, Thorndyke had an RBI single and Pado hit a two-run homer.

"Coach says people like to watch good baseball, so that's what we're going to keep doing," Alexander said.

Schnall said the logical starter for Sunday night would be redshirt senior Riley Eikhoff, who has been one of the weekend starters all season and is 6-2 with a 3.19 earned-run average in 14 starts. Schnall said he expects everyone except Potok to be available to pitch Sunday.

Gators stay alive

Florida鈥檚 bats awoke Saturday, as the Gators registered 16 hits against Fairfield, including nine in 4 1/3 innings for five runs against Stags starter Bowen Baker, who entered the game 8-1 with a 3.20 ERA. Up 7-2, the Gators put the game away with eight runs in the eighth inning.

Bobby Boser, Brody Donay and Blake Cyr all homered for Florida.

Starter Aiden King went eight innings, preserving Florida鈥檚 bullpen for what could be a pair of games Sunday. Only one reliever has thrown more than one inning.

Because they pitched so poorly Friday in a loss to East Carolina, starter Liam Peterson (8-4, 4.28 ERA) and relievers Luke McNiellie (5-2, 4.88) and Blaine Rowland (1-0, 3.29) only pitched 1 1/3 innings each in the first four innings and would be available if needed.

Florida coach Kevin O鈥橲ullivan said he intends to start junior righthander Pierce Coppola (3-0, 1.86 ERA) against ECU Sunday, and still has the services of key relievers Jackson Barberi (4.45 ERA), Billy Barlow (5.67) and Jake Clemente (3.37).

鈥淎 couple things needed to happen {Saturday],鈥� O鈥橲ullivan said. 鈥淲e needed to get length from Aiden and we needed to score a bunch of runs, so we didn鈥檛 have to use our relief pitchers. And I do believe without a doubt that the guys who threw [Friday] that didn鈥檛 throw as well as they would like to will throw better the next time out.鈥�

Florida won a regional at Oklahoma State last year through the loser鈥檚 bracket after losing a game on the second day before beating the hosts in the final two games, and went on to reach the CWS.

鈥淚 think we鈥檙e built for this,鈥� O鈥橲ullivan said.