Seattle, WA. – Coastal Carolina redshirt junior pitcher Austin Kitchen had a career night in leading the No. 16 Chanticleers to a 5-2 win over the Washington Huskies on day two of the Seattle Baseball Showcase at T-Mobile Park in Seattle, Wash.
Kitchen (3-0) recorded the first quality start of his career, throwing a career-high 7.0-complete innings in the win. The left-handed hurler gave up just two runs on five hits and one walk while striking out a career-high seven batters.
Fellow lefty Jay Causey (1) picked up his first save of the season as he allowed just one hit and struck out two batters over the final two innings of play to seal the win for the Chants.
Despite a quality start, Washington’s Jordan Jones (1-2) suffered the loss, allowing three runs on six hits and two walks while striking out eight over 7.1 innings on the mound.
Coastal’s Kyle Skeels (2-for-4, RBI, 2 runs) drove in two RBIs for the game, while Kieton Rivers (1-for-4, 2B, 3 RBIs) recorded a team-high three RBIs at the plate in the win. Keaton Weisz (2-for-4, 3B, run), Jared Johnson (1-for-3, 2B), Zach Biermann (1-for-3, BB, run) and Cameron Pearcey (1-for-4) all had a base hit on the night.
For Washington, six different players had one hit apiece led by Ben Baird’s (1-for-3, HR) solo home run and Braiden Ward’s (1-for-4, RBI) RBI single.
The Chants took an early 1-0 lead in the top of the third, as Weisz led off the frame with a triple to left-center field and then scored on an RBI ground out to the right side of the infield by Cory Wood.
The lead did not last for long, however, as the Huskies’ Baird hit a solo home run to left field in the bottom half of the inning to tie the game up at 1-1.
Coastal retook the lead in the next half inning, as Skeels started the fourth with a single up the middle, advanced to third on Johnson double and then scored on a ground ball in the hole to the left side of the infield off the bat of Rivers to pull back out in front by one at 2-1.
Washington got the run back with a two-out RBI single up the middle from Ward in the bottom of the fifth to knot the game back up at 2-2 after five innings of play.
The Chanticleers got to the Washington bullpen in a big way in the eighth, as Jones was pulled after walking Wood, giving up a sacrifice bunt to Pearcey and then intentionally walking Biermann to put runners on first and second with one out.
Skeels met the first Huskie pitcher out of the bullpen with an RBI single up the middle to put Coastal in front again at 3-2.
After a wild pitch allowed Biermann and Skeels to move up to scoring position and pinch hitter Mike Koenig drew a base-on-balls to load the bases, Rivers lined a double over the head of the right fielder and into the right-center field gap to score Biermann and Skeels to push the Chants lead to three at 5-2.
Causey (2.0 IP, 1 hit, BB, 2 K) struck out two in the eighth and pitched around an infield hit and a walk in the ninth for the 2.0-inning save.
The win is the first-ever for the Chants over Washington on the diamond, evening the all-time series up at 1-1.
Coastal (13-3) will take on No. 1 Oregon State (12-1) tomorrow afternoon at 3 p.m. PT/6 p.m. ET in a battle of two top-25 nationally ranked teams.
