Myrtle Beach, S.C. – Sophomore Nick Tropeano (West Islip, N.Y.) allowed three earned runs in 8.0 innings but Cody Wheeler hurled a six-hit shutout to lead the No. 1 Coastal Carolina Chanticleers to a 6-0 victory over the No. 4 Stony Brook University baseball team in the opening game of NCAA Myrtle Beach Regional at BB&T Coastal Field on Friday afternoon. Stony Brook falls to 29-26 with the loss and will play the loser of tonight’s College of Charleston/N.C. State contest in an elimination game on Saturday at 12:45 p.m. WUSB pregame.“I’m really proud of the heart our guys showed today,” Stony Brook head coach Matt Senk said. “Nick [Tropeano] pitched an outstanding game and really competed out their. But give credit to Coastal Carolina, they’re an excellent ballclub. They got some timely hits and made some terrific defensive plays.”
Tropeano (8-4) allowed 11 hits in his 8.0 innings, walking just two while striking out five. Wheeler (11-0) walked two and struck out six. Freshman Tanner Nivins (Kitchener, Ontario) led the Seawolves with two hits in four at-bats.
Junior Stephen Marino (Lake Grove, N.Y.) reached on a two-out single in the first before Wheeler retired senior Robert Dyer (Selden, N.Y.) on a ground out to second. Tropeano got off to a terrific start, striking out the side in the first.
The Seawolves put together a rally in the second, as Nivins singled with two-out and then stole second. Freshman Maxx Tissenbaum (Toronto, Ontario) then drew a walk but seniorJustin Echevarria (Uniondale, N.Y.) flew out to center to end the inning.
Coastal jumped on top with a run in the second. Tommy La Stella led off the inning with a bloop single to left. Adam Rice then dropped a bunt down the first base line that Tropeano grabbed with his glove and tossed to Dyer for the out. Tropeano then bare-handed Taylor Motter’s hot shot up the middle and threw it to Dyer for the second out.
But Daniel Bowman followed with a run-scoring single down the leftfield line to give the Chanticleers a 1-0 lead. The game was delayed for an hour because of lighting in the area following the third inning and the Seawolves nearly took the lead when play resumed.
Senior Michael Stephan (Patchogue, N.Y.) was hit by the pitch with two outs and Nivins followed with a clean single to left. Tissenbaum then drove the ball to the warning track in centerfield but Coastal centerfielder Rico Noel made an over the shoulder catch to keep Stony Brook off the scoreboard.
The Seawolves put together another scoring threat in the fifth as sophomore Pat Cantwell (West Islip, N.Y.) singled with one out. Then with Cantwell on the move, junior Chad Marshall(Paris, Ontario) sliced a singled to left to give SBU runners on first and third.
Marino then hit a hard grounder up the middle but the shortstop, Motter, gloved it, stepped on the second and fired to first for an inning-ending double play. Tropeano nearly worked in and out of trouble in the fifth as Bowman led off with a triple.
Tropeano then retired Chance Gilmore on a liner to first before getting Rich Witten on a grounder to third. But Noel reached on catcher’s interference and then with Scott Woodward at the plate a balk was called which allowed Bowman to come home with the game’s second run.
Woodward followed with an RBI single and then scored on Jose Iglesias’ double down the left-field line. The Chanticleers added a run in the eighth on a run-scoring single from Chance Gilmore.
