OMAHA, Neb. – Just when it looked like the Arizona Wildcats had broken into the chicken coop and were going to snap the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers’ 23-game winning streak, timely hitting turned the game.
With two outs in the eighth, Coastal Carolina’s Wells Sykes lobbed a pop-up off a low pitch off the plate into right that kissed the foul line and stayed fair for a bloop double. Two batters later, Sebastian Alexander singled him home for a 5-4 Chanticleers lead. Out came closer Tony Pluta from the Wildcats bullpen, trailing by a run with runners on first and second and two outs. He promptly allowed a double to Blake Barthol, his second of the game, that scored Bodine and Alexander to extend the lead to 7-4, a score that held up.
Coastal Carolina rode the late rally to win a game they trailed 4-3 after six innings, extending their streak to 24 consecutive game and pecking their way into Sunday’s winner’s bracket game.
For Barthol, who arrived at Coastal Carolina as an unheralded walk-on, it was a big double in a big spot.
“I got to a 3-1 count and was just trying to relax and stay back,” Barthol, who went 3-for-5 with two RBIs, said of the double. “Started pretty early and see a pitch down the middle and that’s when I got 3-1 and I was able to smack it.”
Chanticleers coach Kevin Schnall elected to use two of his top starters for four innings each, with Riley Eikhoff starting and going four innings, and Cameron Flukey coming in to pitch the next four.
“The strategy was… Cameron Flukey is as good as right-handed pitchers there is in the entire country, and to have Eikhoff lead it off, and he’s more of a sinker slider guy, and Flukey is more of a ride guy, that gives you two different looks and it all worked out tonight,” Schnall said of his the pair, who combined to allow four runs on eight hits over eight innings, walking one and striking out seven.
But it was the Chanticleers offense, especially the bottom half of the lineup, that kept the Chanticleers in the fight, with spots six through nine in the lineup going 8-for-16 with three runs scored and three RBIs.
In the bottom of the second, Coastal Carolina got singles from Colby Thorndike and Blagen Pado to open the inning. Ty Dooley’s bunt attempt popped up in the air along the third base line, and when Arizona pitcher Owen Kramkowsi dove for it, the ball hit his glove in fair territory and fell in for an infield single, loading the bases with no outs for the Chanticleers.
“I just thought the ball was gonna be up in the air for a while. I didn’t see anyone really near it, so I knew I was gonna have to make a play on it,” Kramkowski said. “And just went all out for it, I guess, trying to make something happen. Ended up with a tough situation out of it. But it’s a play that I wish I could have made again, but it happens.”
After Dean Mihos struck out, Wells Sikes ripped a two-run single to left, scoring Thorndike and Plado for a 2-0 Coastal Carolina lead.
Arizona’s Mason White got the Wildcats on the board in the fourth, launching a hot line drive on an 0-2 fastball to left field. Coastal Carolina’s Sebastian Alexander gave chase and leapt for the baseball at the wall, but it fell inches behind his outstretched glove and into the bullpen for a solo homer, his 20th of the season. Adonys Guzman followed White with a double to the right field corner, and Maddox Mihalkis tied the game with a double to right that tied the game at two apiece.
With two outs in the fifth, Plado’s single to right field scored Blake Barthol to give the Chanticleers a 3-2 lead.
In the sixth, reliever Cameron Flukey hit the first two batters of the inning, Arizona’s Aaron Walton and Mason White, then was unable to come up with Adonys Guzman’s bunt back to the mound, loading the bases with no outs. Flukey’s 0-2 offering to Maddox Mihakis grazed the Arizona third baseman’s arm, forcing Walton home to tie the game at three. Garen Caulfield hit a hot grounder to second, but the double play relay arrived at first base behind Caulfield, and White scored to give the Wildcats a 4-3 lead.
But then in the sixth, the Chanticleers tied the game at four when Dean Mihos singled and came around to score on Caden Bodine’s ground out to short.
An inning later, Blake Barthol pulled a fly ball to right field that bounced on the foul line and towards the wall in foul territory, where it was touched by a fan, and the umpires awarded him a double. He advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Walker Mitchell, and that drew Arizona head coach Chip Hale out of the dugout to call Garrett Hicks from the bullpen to try and blunt the threat.
But then Sykes hit his bloop double, and Pluta gave up the two-run double to Barthol, and the Chanticleers found a way to win yet another baseball game.
There were “some funky plays in there, some hit batsmen, some funky bunts. But in the end, it came down to some great two strike hitting by them. Great pitch, almost on the ground. Guy dunks it in the right for a double and then they get jammed, then they hit a ball in the center field for a base hit,” said Arizona head coach Chip Hale. “But that’s the reason, that’s why they have the record they have. And they’ve been able to run so many off. They have a lot of confidence. Hopefully we’ll get another shot at it.”
Coastal Carolina will play the winner of Friday’s evening game between Oregon State and Louisville at 7 p.m. EDT Sunday, with Arizona meeting the loser of the evening game at 2 p.m. EDT Sunday in an elimination game.
Photo: Coastal Carolina first baseman Colby Thorndyke (16) hits a line drive during an NCAA College World Series baseball game on Friday, June 13, 2025 in Omaha, Neb. (AP Photo/Cory Eads)
