Coastal Carolina wins World Series

OMAHA, Neb. >> Coastal Carolina coach Gary Gilmore often said he just wanted his team to reach the College World Series.

Until this week, he never imagined the Chanticleers would do so much more: They’re heading back to Conway, S.C., with the school’s first national championship in any sport.

The Chanticleers defeated Arizona 4-3 in the deciding Game 3 of the College World Series final on Thursday, capitalizing on two errors on the same play to score four unearned runs in the sixth inning of a game delayed a day by bad weather.

It was worth the wait.

“Whenever I die, I’ll know this group of guys here, they willed themselves to be the national champion,” Gilmore said. “It was just meant to be, no doubt. If there is such a thing as a team of destiny, this group is it.”

Coastal Carolina (55-18) became the first team since Minnesota in 1956 to win the title in its first CWS appearance. Arizona (49-24) was trying for its second national title since 2012, but came up just short in a season in which it was picked to finish ninth in the Pac-12.

“Amazing season, and they’re a deserving champion,” first-year Arizona coach Jay Johnson said of the Chanticleers. “We played as good as we possibly could this year, and they’re the best team we’ve played, in my opinion.”

Andrew Beckwith (15-1), the national leader in wins, went 52⁄3 innings after pitching two complete games and picked up his third victory of the CWS. He was named the most outstanding player.

“He’s been coaching for 21 years, and he deserves every bit of it,” Beckwith said of Gilmore. “We got him to Omaha and we got him a national championship. The senior class, the hard work in the fall, the dedication of the guys who don’t play much. It doesn’t go unnoticed. It was a full team effort the whole College World Series, and we got it done.”

Alex Cunningham earned his first save, striking out Ryan Haug with a full-count fastball to end the game after Arizona had pulled within one in the bottom of the ninth. When Haug swung and missed, Cunningham turned to his dugout, beat his chest with his fist three times and saluted before flipping his glove away to start the celebration.

“The running joke is that in high school I lost the state championship three times in a row. I was not going to lose this one, I promise you that,” Cunningham said.

The championship was the first in a team sport in the 33-year history of the Big South Conference. The Big South could savor the accomplishment for only about eight hours. The Chanticleers become members of the Sun Belt Conference today.


“This program has been a lot better than people give it credit for,” Gilmore said. “They thought we played in a small conference and couldn’t get this done. This bunch wanted to prove everybody wrong.”