Colby Thorndyke drives in 6, sparks late-inning barrage in Coastal Carolina's 18-7 win over ECU
The Chanticleers, batting as the visiting team, scored 14 runs in the last three innings.
Coastal Carolina trailed 5-4 heading to the seventh inning, then Sebastian Alexander belted a lead-off home run to tie it. The Chanticleers loaded the bases on a single, an error and a hit batter, setting the stage for Thorndyke. He belted the first pitch over the right-field fence for a 9-5 lead. Two outs later, Caden Bodine's two-run double capped the six-run inning and Coastal Carolina led 10-5.
Alexander added a two-run single to highlight a five-run eighth inning that gave CCU a 15-5 lead. Thorndyke added an RBI single in the ninth and scored on Blagen Pado's two-run home run.
No. 3 seed East Carolina will play second-seeded Florida in an elimination game Sunday. That winner will need to beat Coastal Carolina later Sunday and again on Monday to reach the super regionals. The top-seeded host Chanticleers would advance with one win.
Alexander drove in four runs and Pado three. Both had four hits, as did Thorndyke.
Dixon Williams and Austin Irby each had a home run, three hits and two RBIs for the Pirates. Jack Herring had four hits.
Matthew Potok (3-1) got the win.
Brad Pruett (5-6) took the loss.
___
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'There is not one time when you are being lazy or soft that it won't be pointed out,' he tells the room. 'When you loaf,' Rodriguez asks the room, 'what does that mean?' Players, in unison, respond: 'You are a traitor!' A traitor? It's the same description that so many in this state used toward the coach years ago. Return of a legend Rich Rodriguez answered the phone to hear a familiar voice on the other end. 'Hey, Coach,' he said to Nick Saban. Saban, the now-retired Alabama head coach, is a West Virginia native himself. He still has deep connections to the state and often roots for its flagship university. On behalf of the school, Saban phoned Rodriguez a few days before his Jacksonville State team played in the Conference USA championship game last December. The goal of the call: Find out if Rodriguez would be interested in returning to West Virginia. Days later, Baker and members of his search committee visited Rodriguez's home, dined on a buffet of goodies, including wife Rita's famous nacho dip, and were convinced that a reunion could work. But this wasn't a one-man-focused exhibition. Baker interviewed 17 candidates and spoke to four finalists in person. Some figures chose to remain at their current place of employment, such as Penn State offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki and Tulane head coach Jon Sumrall. Though Baker declined to comment on specific names, many believe that Rodriguez and Army head coach Jeff Monken were the last two men standing. 'I wasn't inclined to hire Rich for nostalgia purposes,' Baker said in an interview with Yahoo Sports this week. 'We weren't doing this to get the band back together.' Rodriguez's honesty and approach to his messy exit 17 years ago was a critical determining factor in the hire. During the interview process — a Zoom call and the in-person meeting — Baker asked Rodriguez three different times about his final days at West Virginia. In the in-person visit, Rodriguez delivered a lengthy, emotional answer. 'I thought he did a really good job of articulating what he'd done differently and the regrets he had,' Baker said. 'I was envisioning the press conference as he was answering. 'If you can answer that question at the podium, with the emotion and the authenticity that you just did, you will win a good portion of people back.' 'And that's what he did.' So what happened all of those years ago? 'Rich didn't get what he was promised,' said Dusty Rutledge, Rodriguez's chief of staff, a longtime confidant and a man with firsthand knowledge of the coach's decision to leave his alma mater. Years ago, Rodriguez opened up about the decision, alleging to have three times caught university administrators misappropriating donations meant for football. Late on the night of Dec. 15, a day after interviewing for the job in Ann Arbor and a day before accepting it, the coach held a heated conversation with then-West Virginia president Mike Garrison at the president's mansion. Rutledge drove the coach to that meeting. Garrison greeted the men at the door in house slippers, pajama bottoms and a T-shirt, 'Well,' the president said, 'I guess we have to meet.' The coach was searching for reasons to stay. He got none. 'Rich brought up things that were supposed to happen that hadn't happened,' Rutledge recalled. 'The tone of the other side was, 'We've done enough.'' Garrison lasted just 14 months as WVU's president. His office was consumed with controversies of favoritism, and in the spring of 2008, the faculty voted to call for his resignation, which he gave that June. At the center of Rodriguez's exit was the infamous 13-9 loss to rival Pitt in Morgantown to end the 2007 season — a stunning defeat at the hands of a 5-7 Panthers team who entered 28-point underdogs. Many in West Virginia conflate these two events — Rodriguez's exit to Michigan and a loss that cost the Mountaineers a chance to play in the BCS national championship game. Some even take it a step further, accusing the coach of purposely losing that game to secure the Michigan job. Rodriguez describes that game as the biggest nightmare of his professional career, one that led to him vomiting in the locker room afterward. He's offended that anyone would believe that his departure two weeks later was connected to his team's performance that night. 'It pisses me off,' he said in a previous interview. 'That is total bulls***. Bulls***.' Take me home, country roads Before the coal mine closed in 1984, Grant Town's economy boomed. The city reached more than 1,200 residents, featured at least four grocery stores and more than a dozen brothels, bars and saloons, says Rosic, in his fourth year as mayor. There was a movie theater and bowling alley, too. Forty years later, there isn't a single commercial business in the town. Its population has dropped to under 600. Several dozen towns in West Virginia have experienced similar declines. The state as a whole lost 3% of its population since 2010 (60,000 residents), the most by far of any of the 50 states. For all of its beauty — the tree-lined mountains, blue-running rivers and stunning sunsets — West Virginia is slipping away, a product of coal mine closures. Grant Town is a microcosm of a larger problem. 'Once the grade school and mine shut down in the '80s, there wasn't much opportunity left,' said Dave Mazure, a clerk with the Grant Town Water Department. While some townsfolk want a larger sign to honor the new West Virginia head coach, there isn't enough money in the coffers. The town's annual budget is $236,000, Rosic said. The city can't afford street paving and the mayor is unsure if the town will keep its municipal designation in the near future. 'We can't spend $3,000 on a sign,' Rosic said. 'Everybody knows where he's from. He got an $18 million contract, right? He can buy a bigger sign.' One of those 550 remaining residents in Grant Town is Arlene Rodriguez, Rich's 85-year-old mother. Rich hasn't visited this place since he returned as coach — he's been busy building the foundation of his new program. So, Arlene made the 40-minute drive to see her son earlier this spring. In Morgantown, she witnessed a sort-of comeback story that only the best fiction authors could write. The community is ecstatic. More than 33,000 season tickets have been sold — the highest since 2013 and a number that represents the third-largest city in the state. 'West Virginians are forgiving, particularly to one of their own,' said Michael Benson, who took over this summer as the university's new president, 'but he's got to win.' For some, there is an uneasy feeling: Can this really work? After games against Robert Morris and at Ohio, Sept. 13 serves as a litmus test. West Virginia meets Pitt in Morgantown. 'I think there are still a lot of people with one leg on the other side of the fence about the hire,' Caridi, the radio broadcaster, said. 'A lot of people are focusing on that third game. If they get it done, they'll bring that leg over to the other side.' A single game is one thing. But can a 62-year-old lead West Virginia back to where he did nearly two decades ago — atop the college football world? The athlete revenue-sharing era of college sports puts an emphasis on money more than ever. In most recent reporting figures from USA Today, WVU's athletic budget ($105 million) ranks sixth in the Big 12 and 45th among the 70-some odd power conference schools. According to Forbes' latest research, the state of West Virginia has no billionaires. For comparison, one of its border states, Ohio, has three people worth a combined $20 billion. In a college sports world increasingly dominated by revenue-generating giants in the SEC and Big Ten, can West Virginia win? 'The short answer is yes, but it's probably more difficult,' said Oliver Luck, the former West Virginia athletic director and an alum of the school. Baker says the school will compensate its athletes to the max in Year 1 of revenue share: $20.5 million, an amount reduced by $2.5 million in new scholarships. Roughly two-thirds of the $18 million is expected to come from funding outside of the athletic department, such as the university itself and foundation, some of that derived from a new student athletic fee. Rodriguez is raising cash himself. He's restarted a booster club that began during his first stint here. The '1,100 Club' has already hosted a few meetings. The name derives from the group's original goal in the early 2000s of fundraising for WVU coaches to use King Air private jets for recruiting purposes. Back then, a King Air cost $1,100 an hour to rent. While inflation has changed that figure, the club's name remains the same. The 1,100 Club is back in action with more than 200 members so far. There is money here, perhaps not the money that there is in Columbus, Ohio or Austin, Texas. But money, nonetheless. 'Are we Ohio State or Texas A&M? No,' said Alvarez, the booster and longtime friend of Rodriguez. 'But it's not all about money. You've got to establish a culture.' Luck sees what Rodriguez is doing and grows excited about the future. It's the toughness and grit he's instilling, the attention to detail, the fast-paced schematics. 'When West Virginia is good, we've punched above our weight,' Luck said. 'I think how historically we've done that is to be scrappy, to be tough and have an edge. We got away from that and we're getting back to that. That gives everybody hope that we can begin to have success.' Rodriguez knows what the fans here want. 'They want to bring that magic back,' he said with a smile. 'I wasn't brought back to play the highlights of the 2005 Sugar Bowl. I was brought back to take us to another one.' Can he really do it? He's already done something so few believed was possible. He's returned home. Mike Patrick, the former longtime college football broadcaster and West Virginia native, once joked that there were armed guards posted at the state's border to keep Rodriguez out forever. When asked if time would heal the wounds, Patrick quipped, 'We'll all be dead by then.' Mike Patrick passed away at the age of 80 this past April — four months after Rodriguez's hire.
