UNCW Tightens Up, Takes Series

The Seahawks took care of the details on Sunday vs. Kennesaw State

Maybe the Seahawks needed a day off.

When hurricane-force winds and a cold rain whipped through the state on things on Saturday, it gave Coach Randy Hood and his staff a chance to evaluate the program and determine what changes were necessary for a talented group that hadn’t been able to get out of its own way over the past couple weeks.

KSU 4, UNCW 3 | UNCW 3, KSU 0 | UNCW 2, KSU 1

Entering this weekend’s series with Kennesaw State at 7-5, UNCW saw things go from bad to worse in Friday’s debacle that included 10 walks, two baserunning errors and an inability to get down a bunt.

Afterward, it was clear that Hood believed the Hawks were a crossroads.

“You can’t win games when you constantly play like that,” he said “We’ll figure it out, we’ll get better, but we’ve got to clean a lot of things up in those areas. I told them we’re losing one-run ballgames and we’re playing way worse than the other team, and we’re right there.”

Here’s how UNCW (9-6) returned on Sunday to sweep the doubleheader to take the series from the Owls (9-6), offering a preview of the type of team the Seahawks can be.

Taking Opinions

Hood said that he and the staff sat down and talked after Friday’s loss, and he also didn’t mind hearing from a few trusted friends, either.

“Got a lot of friends that have a lot of opinions — won’t name which one — but have a lot of guys just throw some things at us and I don’t mind listening if they know baseball,” he said. “We sat and talked with some coaches and our coaching staff, and just felt like, ‘Let’s switch it up a little bit.’”

The biggest change was deciding to move Taber Mongero — who’s hit fifth, sixth, eighth and ninth this season — into the leadoff spot, while sliding Brooks Baldwin into the third slot.

Mongero impacted both games, scoring the first run in the opener then going 3 of 4 with an RBI single in the second, knocking in Ron Evans to score the tying run.

In the ninth, Mongero was intentionally walked to load the bases before Baldwin drew a walk to send Thorburn across the plate for the winning run.

“Taber’s good enough he can hit in a lot of different spots in your lineup; we just felt like changing the mojo a little bit in our lineup was an opportunity today to maybe get something back,” Hood said. “We’ve been struggling just a little bit and he had some good at-bats today, and that means some of the other guys in the lineup were different, and I thought overall, a good solid (day)…”

Mongero pushed his batting average to .298 with an on-base percentage of .355, and now, he’ll get a few more at-bats moving to the top of the lineup.

As for the changes?

“We weren’t great offensively but it gave us a little bit of a different look, some guys stepped up,” Hood said.

Cleaning it Up

Walks have been a killer for UNCW this season, and that was certainly the case on Friday with three of KSU’s four scoring runners getting on via walk. In all, the Seahawks walked 10 batters on Friday.

Pitching coach Kelly Secrest obviously made his point, as the Seahawks issued a total of eight walks across two games on Sunday. Only once did UNCW pitchers walk two batters in the same inning on Sunday — something that happened three times in Friday’s game.

Matt Gaither (2-1, 2.25) helped set the tone on Sunday, giving UNCW six scoreless innings, allowing two hits with three strikeouts and four walks. In the second game, freshman RJ Sales might have delivered his best start of the season, allowing one run on full hits with a season-low one walk.

“Pitching and defense was the big thing today,” Hood said.

Add in an error-free defense and a lockdown day from the bullpen, and that’s a recipe for success.

In all, UNCW’s starters went 14.2 innings, allowing four earned runs on 11 hits with 12 strikeouts and eight walks.

Premium Pen

Even with the seven walks on Friday, the bullpen wasn’t bad, with a series line of 10.1 IP, one earned run, six hits, seven strikeouts and 10 walks.

It got even better on Sunday, as Cole Benton, Cyle Phelan and Bryce Cota teamed to work six shutout innings, giving up just four hits with three strikeouts and three walks.

Phelan’s performance was his third three-inning outing of the season, and the freshman has already established himself as one of UNCW’s top relievers with a WHIP of 1.20 and an ERA Of 1.80, as opponents are hitting just .156.

Bryce Cota followed him to get the win in the finale, and yet again, the lefty closed the door when the Seahawks needed it most. Overall, Cota (2.35 ERA, 1.04 WHIP) has 10 strikeouts to go with one walk.

“Slow, slower and slower a little bit with his pitches,” Hood said. “He pitches off his off-speed and then has the ability to command really three pitches — fastball, curveball and change — and when you can do that and keep the hitters off balance it makes the fastball, even though the velocity might not stay very high, it makes it play off.

“He’s done a great job of being able to locate all three pitches and come in and settle things down when he’s had the opportunity.”

Seeing those guys shut it down out of the bullpen only gives the Hawks more confidence.

“It was huge to see them do that,” Mongero said. “A lot of close games here lately, and we’ve been on the opposite end of those and it was really good to see pitching and defense bear down today. Pitching and defense wins games when the offense isn’t working, so if we can hold it down like that consistently, we should be all right, even when the bats aren’t hot that day.’

Before Sunday’s victory, UNCW had lost three straight one-run games.

The Maniac

With Thorburn battling a sore shoulder, Hood has picked his spots with the junior outfielder and pinch-hitting specialist, generally saving him for big spots in close games.

Appropriately, Thorburn earned his first start of the season in Sunday’s finale, getting into the lineup as UNCW’s designated hitter and delivered a second-inning double.

Hood couldn’t have been happier to see Thorburn leading off the bottom of the ninth in a tie game. Naturally, the coach delivered too, dropping this quote:

I don’t listen to many walkup songs, but I hear his all the time, it’s ‘Maniac’ and that’s kind of what he is. He’s just weird enough — and I don’t mean this in a bad way, so nobody call me up and say, ‘Why’d you call Chris weird?’ — he’s just weird enough to where things don’t phase him. Whether he’s pinch hitting or hitting late in a game, or you all of a sudden lead him off against the New York Yankees, he’s going to walk up there and not be phased. Not always going to hit it hard, but he’s going to do something that’s going to be positive for you at some point.

Thorburn singled to start the rally and came around to score when Baldwin walked.

“It’s exciting to be in those situations, it’s always fun late in games when you’re behind, you’re coming back and you’re trying to go out and win a ballgame,” Thorburn said.

We’ve previously called Thorburn ‘Chaos Machine’ for his ability to get in the middle of wild rallies, but that’s not nearly as good of a nickname as ‘Maniac.’

Print the shirts.

Owl See You Again

Expect to see the Seahawks and Owls meeting up regularly in the coming years.

Hood sung the praises of first-year KSU coach Ryan Coe, who spent the past 12 years as a scout for the Texas Rangers.

“I want to keep playing them,” Hood said. “I think they’re going to be a great program; I know he’s going to get them turned around and they’re going to be what I think we are: they’re going to be a strong mid-major, high-RPI kind of team that’s going to be in regionals.”

Next Up

It’s going to be all Ohio State, all the time this week.

The Buckeyes come to town for a four-game series, but the teams will open on Wednesday night (6 p.m.) at Brooks Field before taking Thursday off. Then, they’ll play three more Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

OSU is 5-8 overall, including a 7-2 loss to Campbell in Fayetteville on March 4.