Weiss Lifts Hawks Past Huskies, Into Championship
UNCW goes for its third straight CAA title on Saturday
An unusual season kept the CAA’s best teams apart for an entire season, building even more anticipation over a months-long collision course that finally crossed on a steamy Friday night under the lights.
Not so unusual: Cole Weiss was ready for the big stage, delivering an early grand-slam on his way to another legendary postseason performance to help UNCW top Northeastern 8-4 at Brooks Field.
With the victory, the Seahawks (32-20) advanced to Saturday evening’s championship round, where they’ll await the winner of a 1 p.m. elimination game featuring the Huskies (33-10) against Charleston (27-24).
A few takeaways from Friday night’s victory, and a look ahead to the title game.
Cole World
Is the CAA Tournament now the Cole Weiss Batting Practice Exhibition and Games? At the very least, the league should consider naming the MVP award for him, considering he’s on the verge of becoming the first player to ever win it twice.
He became the top candidate early Friday evening when, after an RBI single in the first inning, he got just enough of a 2-0 pitch to put it over the left-field wall and stake the Seahawks to a 6-0 lead.
With a ninth-inning double, Weiss finished his evening 3-5 with five RBI, along with scoring a run after being hit by a pitch.
Another big-time performance pushed his all-time CAA Tournament batting average to .469 (23-49) and slugging percentage to .776 with three homers, six doubles and 17 RBI.
Not only is his confidence obvious when he steps into the box, but it carries over to an energized dugout and brings a buzz to the stadium.
Young Closers
After a solid start from Adam Smith, there was no reason not to turn it over to Hunter Hodges, who’s been dominant in the closing role he assumed in mid-April.
It just wasn’t his night, as the true freshman couldn’t find the zone — and there’s plenty of merit in wondering if the zone was shifting — and gave up two hits, two walks and two runs while only getting one out.
UNCW coach Randy Hood and pitching coach Matt Myers, rather than turning to experience, handed the ball to another true freshman.
Ethan Chenault wup to the task, tossing a perfect 2.2 innings to close out the victory.
Since April 16, Chenault has flourished over nine appearances, allowing three earned runs — all vs. North Carolina — on five hits with 10 strikeouts.
Both have shown plenty of grit in big moments all season, and it might not be long before Hodges gets another shot, as he threw just 16 pitches on Friday.
Defending Brooks
The best team at beating UNCW this season has been itself, and generally, that’s involved defensive miscues that immediately produced unearned runs.
It’s amazing just how costly errors have been for what has been one of the program’s best defensive clubs of all-time, that without the Charlotte series, would statistically be No. 1. Currently, it’s in the top five with a fielding percentage of .973.
To this point in the tournament, the Hawks have committed just a single throwing error that didn’t impact the game.
On Friday, UNCW went error-free thanks to a solid effort all around and a great one from Taber Mongero, who cleaned up all eight of his chances, starting one double play with a nice snag and nearly finishing another.
The Hawks are 14-4 in errorless games, 10-11 when committing one error, 7-2 when committing two errors, and 0-3 when they have three or more.
Championship Saturday Starter
Luke Gesell will get the ball for UNCW, and this is nothing new for the fifth-year senior.
He, too, has pitched well since April 16 when he shifted to third in the rotation, going 3-0 with a 3.06 ERA and 1.05 WHIP, as the Hawks going 5-1 in his starts on what the program refers to as “Championship Sunday,” with the logic most tournaments wrap up on Sundays.
It’s one day earlier, but still in the third spot for UNCW. We’ll see which of those two factors is the most important, but expect a strong outing and plenty of poise for Gesell after a tough start vs. Charlotte last week.
Enjoy it, Again
The chance to win another championship and NCAA Tournament berth on your home field? On a beautiful weekend? How lucky are we?
A win would give UNCW its third straight CAA championship and its seventh NCAA trip in the past nine completed seasons — all for a program whose resources don’t match up with its success.
In the big picture of Seahawk baseball history, it could be a mile-post in proving the success of Coach Mark Scalf handing off the program to his longtime assistant Hood, who saw his first season end prematurely because of COVID-19.
This is the sixth straight season UNCW has advanced to the championship round, and with a victory, it would tie ECU (7) for most CAA championships.
Saturday’s Format
The early game matching Charleston and Northeastern will send one team home, while the other moves on to meet UNCW at 5 p.m. in the championship around.
Given that the Cougars and Huskies have both suffered a loss to the Seahawks, they’d enter the championship round at a distinct disadvantage in terms of available pitchers.
And since it’s a double elimination tournament, the survivor of that elimination game would have to beat UNCW twice to claim the championship.
The Hawks need just one victory, either on Saturday evening, or if necessary, in a winner-take-all game at 1 p.m. on Sunday.