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College  | Story | 6/24/2016

CWS: Beckwith does it again

Patrick Ebert
Photo: Coastal Carolina University




2016 College World Series Recaps: Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6


OMAHA, Neb. – Andrew Beckwith certainly has a knack for stymying opposing hitters. Just five days after shutting down the mighty Florida Gators lineup he faced an equally lethal TCU squad that led the Big 12 in batting. Mitchell Traver took the mound opposite Beckwith, and although he pitched well was saddled with the loss as Coastal Carolina forced a Saturday elimination game against TCU with the 4-1 win.

And for as good as Beckwith was, his defense behind him – both in the infield and the outfield – made numerous key plays throughout the game that helped secure the victory.

“I knew our defense was going to come out and play,” Beckwith said, quickly attributing his success to his teammates. “I knew they were going to scratch some runs across. Like I said on Sunday, just pounding the zone, let your defense work. We got the best infielders, the fastest outfielders I feel like in Division I baseball. And they really came to play today.”

The two starters offered a stark contrast from one another. Beckwith, the Big South Pitcher of the Year, is listed at 6-foot, 180-pounds. He changes his arm slot from one delivery to the next, leaving hitters unsure if Beckwith will be coming from a more traditional three-quarters slot or a near submarine one. While his fastball doesn’t climb past the low-80s very often, with a fluttering upper-60s sidearm breaking ball and low- to mid-70s changeup, he exhibits pinpoint control and a fearless overall approach.

After allowing a double to Josh Watson in the second (who Beckwith promptly picked off as Watson was caught napping too far off the bag), Beckwith proceeded to retire the next 13 batters in order before allowing a leadoff single to Cam Warner in the seventh.

“It was a very well pitched game on both sides,” Coastal Carolina head coach Gary Gilmore said after the game. “Ten hits total, and Andrew was absolutely incredible. I can't say enough about him.”

Traver on the other hand is every bit of 6-foot-7, 255-pounds, with a power arsenal that includes a fastball that sat at 90-92 in the early innings and a low-80s slider that frequently was clocked higher than Beckwith’s fastball. Traver was a prized recruit coming out of high school, and was a participant of the 2011 Perfect Game All-American Classic at Petco Park given his high-powered arm and promising future potential.

A hit by pitch, single, bunt single, infield error and a sac fly led to two runs in the third inning for Coastal Carolina who took the early 2-0 lead. Only one of those two runs were earned, but both runs were somewhat of a hard-luck situation for Traver, as neither run should have scored had the inning been played cleanly.

Traver settled down nicely after the third, at least for the next few innings. At one point in the game the two starters had combined to retire 20 straight batters. However, by the seventh Traver had clearly ran out of gas. He was laboring more on the mound, and after 90 pitches, and 6 1/3 strong innings, his day was done.

Preston Guillory was called upon to take over with runners at first and third with one out, and the first batter he faced, Billy Cooke, hit a deep fly to left that scored Woodall. The second batter, David Parrett, hit a booming ground-rule to left field that scored Tyler Chadwick, and the third, Michael Paez, was hit by a pitch. Guillory did freeze Anthony Marks to end the inning, but when it was all said and done Coastal Carolina added two more runs to extend their lead to 4-0.

All four runs were attributed to Traver, who allowed only three hits and a pair of walks.

The TCU offense did come to life, relatively, in the eighth inning as Beckwith surpassed 100 pitches. Drew Steinhagen hit a solo home run with one out to put TCU on the board and Ryan Merrill followed him with a sharply hit single up the middle, but Beckwith did a nice job collecting himself to retire the next two batters and enter the ninth with a 4-1 lead.

Beckwith managed to squeeze one more inning out of his arm, tossing his second complete game in Omaha while recording his 14th win on the season. He allowed the one run on six hits and a walk, using 137 pitches to complete the feat.

“I think I would have had to hit (Beckwith) with a brick or whatever to get him to come out of the game,” coach Gilmore said of his ace. “I was trying to take him out of the eighth. He wouldn't come out. I didn't want to see him out in the ninth, and he just wasn't going to have any part of it.

“He's a unique young man, and what he did tonight was incredible. And we're fortunate enough to get a couple hits here and there and execute a couple of things and live again for tomorrow.”

As a result the two teams will play again on Saturday at the same time (7:00 p.m. CT) in a re-match of Friday’s contest. Although both coaches were reluctant to name a starter, TCU is expected to flip their rotation and hand the ball to Jared Janczak while Coastal Carolina will likely turn to Alex Cunningham.


Wildcats determined to remain in Omaha

In the first game of the day on Friday Arizona continued to tame the best Omaha has to offer, jumping on Oklahoma State early en route to a convincing 9-3 win. After a pair of 1-0 wins for Oklahoma State that put them on the easy winners’ bracket path to Friday’s game, the Cowboys fell behind for the first time during the 2016 College World Series, and did so in the first inning.

OSU starter Jensen Elliott didn’t have his best stuff, or his best command. His fastball sat at 86-90 mph early and the Arizona batters were jumping all over it, making consistent, hard contact early in the game.

He walked the first batter, Cody Ramer, and allowed a sharp single through the left side of the infield to Zach Gibbons. After a fielder’s choice bunt attempt and a strikeout looking of Bobby Dalbec, J.J. Matijevic hit another sharp single through the left side of the infield to give the Wildcats an early 1-0 lead.

The Wildcats added two more in the second, as Louis Boyd followed Cesar Salazar’s hard-hit double with a booming two-bagger of his own, and another run came around to score on yet another hit by Zach Gibbons, who finished the day 3-for-4 with two RBI.

“Just using our eyes, letting the ball back up to us and getting our pitch and putting a good swing on it,” Gibbons said after the game about he and his teammates’ revised approach after being shut down by Oklahoma State on Monday. “I feel like (Tyler) Buffett the other night was making great pitches and we were just swinging over the top of him, swinging at his pitch. I think today it just helped backing the ball up and getting our pitch and putting a good swing on it.

Gibbons added a sacrifice fly in the fourth that gave Arizona what seemed like a commanding 4-0 lead, and tacked on five more runs in the final two innings to put the game well out of reach.

J.J. Matijevic also enjoyed a three-hit day, and Cesar Salazar, the No. 8 hitter, reached base five times (two hits, a walk, a hit by pitch and he reached on an error) and scored three runs.

The story early in the game was Arizona starter Nathan Bannister, who has been a workhorse for the Wildcats all season, but especially in the postseason, coming off of his dominant seven inning, 11 strikeout performance over Miami on the first day of the CWS. In this game he seemed to be cruising, freezing the first two batters he faced in the top of the third on upper-80s fastballs before he over extended on his delivery on his first pitch to Collin Theroux and apparently tweaked something in the process.

Although he remained in the game to face Theroux, with no initial visit to the mound from the coaching staff, he showed signs of being in discomfort, taking his time pacing behind the mound after throwing the pitch and holding his arm close to his body. His command wasn’t the same and his velocity was a few ticks below where he had been with the previous two batters.

As a result, his day came to an end after 2 2/3 innings without allowing a hit and striking out five.

“He felt something uncomfortable that he felt three summers ago when he was in the Cape Cod League,” Arizona head coach Jay Johnson said of Bannister after the game. “And he said it was just a little bit tight, a little bit tired like there was nothing on the ball. I was very encouraged he threw two pitches after we went out there. Standing behind the mound, had I not known anything would happen, it didn't look any different to me. So that's a very encouraging sign with Nathan.

“So we'll get him checked out obviously further, but I'm very optimistic about it.”

Kevin Ginkel, who picked up the win despite being responsible for two of the three Oklahoma State runs that scored, showed impressive stuff in the fourth inning, touching 95 and 96 after throwing 91-93 fastballs upon entering the game in the third.

However, the real story of this game came down to Arizona’s closer Cameron Ming who is doing his best impersonation of last year's CWS hero, Josh Sborz.

Ming made his fourth appearance in as many games played in Omaha for the Wildcats and responded with five near-perfect innings. While he did walk the first batter he faced in the ninth, Corey Hassel, he was able to get Donnie Walton to hit into a 6-4-3 double play.

And his appearance should have ended when the next batter, Garrett Benge, hit a lazy fly to left field. However, Arizona left fielder Justin Behnke lost the ball in the brilliant sun and Benge was credited with a double. Conor Costello, who tripled in Benge earlier in the game, followed with a walk, and Benge was brought home on an RBI double by Andrew Rosa to put a blemish on Ming’s stat line.

That would be all of the damage he would allow, and now has only allowed the one run in 10 innings, allowing just four base hits, during his time spent in Omaha so far.

“Bannister is the captain of the pitching staff, I would say,” Ming said of his extended appearance after his teammate’s early exit. “He grinds it out every time he goes out there and shows us how much he wants to win. And it means a lot to every one of the pitchers. I look up to him a lot. When he came out of the game, I just wanted to give him and our team the best.”

Similar to Coastal Carolina/Texas Christian, Arizona's win forces a re-match in an elimination contest against Oklahoma State set to begin at 2:00 p.m. CT at TD Ameritrade Park on Saturday.
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