These chicks dig the long ball

Published 8:20 am Friday, June 10, 2016

I’m familiar with the term “Carolina,” and I think we can all deal with the “Coastal” modifier to come up with Coastal Carolina University as LSU’s opponent in this weekend’s NCAA baseball super regional.

But right now “Chanticleers,” which is a load and a half to type, is stumping my Google.

Maybe I’m misspelling it or something or …

Oh, wait … here it is.

Chanticleer — pronounced “SHON-ti-clear” — is some sort of rooster, though mostly only in legend, most prominently in Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales.”

So — you can exhale now ?— it’s not related to the ’possum family, although in lore and literature it apparently has a working relationship with a spry fellow named Reynard the Fox.

In some circles, a Chanticleer is a male vocal ensemble, although we can assume that has nothing to do with Coastal Carolina’s baseball team.

In fact, Coastal Carolina, which was founded in 1954, got its first permanent address in 1962 and became a four-year school in 1974, was once a part of the University of South Carolina (Gamecocks) system.

Thus, when the mascot was picked, they tried to find something related to the mother ship.

The school long ago broke free from USC, and at the time there was a movement afoot to also sever ties with anything related to chickens as a mascot.

But most of the students, it appeared, had taken a fancy to being Chanticleers, perhaps because ?— rare among poultry — it “is a rooster who rules the barnyard with cunning and wit.”

So the nickname stuck.

Less known fact: the Chanticleer’s only other known home base as a mascot is Ord High School in Ord, Nebraska, which is really nowhere near Omaha. (Duke’s yearbook is named “The Chanticleer,” but the connection is fuzzy, probably just because it sounded cool).

So we’ve cleared that up.

Not that Coastal Carolina is an unknown, like Utah Valley University at last weekend’s regional. I honestly had never heard of that bunch.

Coastal Carolina, yeah.

It’s not even a Stony Brook, the gold standard for shockers in Alex Box Stadium.

You should have heard of Coastal, particularly if you’re a college baseball fan. You just never had to pay much attention before.

These Chanticleers — I’m getting the hang of typing it — are not novices.

This is their third super regional, and they’ve hosted regionals and super regionals in the past.

The Ratings Percentage Index is No. 12, which is the highest for any team that didn’t get to host a regional.

No matter. Coastal took out host North Carolina State with a four-run rally in the ninth inning of the winner-take-all to advance. A thunderstorm interrupted things mid-rally — something LSU can relate to — and the Chanticleers finished it off almost 24 hours later.

The school is, oddly enough, near the coast, in Conway, South Carolina, which is just down the road a piece from Myrtle Beach, which I believe touts itself as the Putt-Putt capital of the world, windmill division.

In fact, if there’s one great thing about Coastal Carolina, it’s that you can major in golf there, which may have been famous alum Dustin Johnson’s attraction to the place.

Mostly, though, it seems the school attracts baseball players. Good ones, too.

They play in the Big South, where they went 21-4 while blowing through the likes of Gardner-Webb, Longwood, Winthrop, etc.

But next year Coastal Carolina will join the Sun Belt with Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana-Monroe and those guys.

Head coach Gary Gilmore has been there for 20 years, and, if you Google Gary Gilmore, you’ll probably find a notorious Utah murderer who demanded his own execution, by firing squad no less.

I’m pretty sure this is a different Gary Gilmore since the criminal one has been very dead since 1977.

But here’s the main thing you need to know about Coastal Carolina.

When LSU’s Greg Deichmann launched that bomb against Rice Tuesday, it was his 10th home run of the season, which leads the Tigers.

Coastal Carolina has four (4) players with 15 or more — mostly more.

Third baseman Zach Remillard has 18, DH G.K. Young has 16, while right fielder Connor Owings and shortstop Michael Paez have 15 apiece.

The team has 91, which if they hit one more before the season ends will lead the nation.

What? The Chanticleers didn’t get the memo that Gorilla Ball was extinct?

LSU has 45, most of them by accident.

Coastal Carolina has a really nice new ballpark that, yes, has smaller dimensions than Alex Box ??— about 10-15 feet shorter all the way around.

But Coastal’s opponents, presumably playing with the same dimensions all year, hit only 31 home runs in those games.

Swinging wildly for the fences?

The Chanticleers hit .301, and stole 102 bases while — get this — only getting thrown out 25 times.

LSU, which, bless its heart, fancies itself a running team, stole 95, the most in the SEC — but was thrown out 40 times, usually by a lot.

If there’s good news for LSU, it’s that Coastal Carolina has legitimate pitching ?— the Tigers tend to struggle when teams draw straws to get somebody on the mound.

The Chanticleer may be a strange bird. But it doesn’t sound like much wit and cunning was required into getting this far.