'Not a Cinderella story': Coastal Carolina's rise as a college baseball power

OMAHA, Neb. -- On April 22, the College of Charleston shot squad bushed Coastal Carolina, and winning manager Chad Holbrook walked crossed the tract to his car and glanced implicit astatine the third-base dugout. Coastal Carolina's players were connected the bus, and the coaches were having a meeting. Holbrook considers those coaches friends -- they're separated by little than a two-hour thrust and fundamentally stock a formation -- and erstwhile helium looked in, helium thought they seemed down.

So Holbrook stopped.

"I told them, 'Why are y'all truthful mad?'" helium said. "'You've got 1 of the champion teams successful the country. You're going to big a determination and astir apt beryllium a nationalist seed, and you're astir apt not going to suffer the remainder of the year.'"

Holbrook firmly believed the archetypal 3 assertions. But not losing again? That astir apt was hyperbole.

Twenty-six games later, Coastal Carolina hasn't lost, and Holbrook seems prescient.

The Chanticleers, riding a 26-game winning streak, look LSU connected Saturday successful the Men's College World Series best-of-three title round.

Asked Thursday astir that April exchange, Coastal Carolina manager Kevin Schnall smiled and recalled that day, repeating the quotes astir verbatim. He disputed conscionable 1 item -- that helium and his coaches were glum.

"We were disappointed that we didn't play well," Schnall said. "But we were much regrouping and making definite we're connected the aforesaid leafage for the play ahead."

Schnall, 48, is precise. He is simply a first-year manager who spent fractional of his beingness arsenic an adjunct and leaves thing to chance. He was an All-American for the Chanticleers successful the 1990s, replaced his mentor Gary Gilmore arsenic manager and reached these existent heights by calculating everything, including the messaging.

On Sunday, helium went viral successful assemblage shot circles aft his squad bushed Oregon State and Schnall made a constituent to close the media members who person been pronouncing the school's nickname wrong.

"Everybody accidental it with me," helium said, his dependable rising. "SHON-tuh-cleers!"

The play before, helium seemed offended by immoderate underdog statement aft his 13th-seeded squad swept No. 4 Auburn successful ace regionals. He said "this is not a Cinderella story," portion reciting the program's affluent and palmy postseason history, which includes 21 NCAA tournaments successful the past 25 seasons and a nationalist title successful 2016.

The play earlier that, helium wasn't acrophobic to telephone Florida's Kevin O'Sullivan a bully aft an expletive-filled rant to tract administrators successful the Conway Regional.

And for each that, helium has garnered the respect of Chanticleers past and present.

"I would spell and tally done a partition for that feline close now, and I'm not adjacent connected the team," said G.K. Young, an All-American from the 2016 rubric team.

As for those existent players, catcher Caden Bodine, the team's starring hitter and a finalist for the Buster Posey Award fixed annually to Division I's apical backstop, said the Chants person gotten utilized to Schnall's blue-collar mentality.

"He's precise intense, but we similar him a lot, and we truly each provender disconnected of that," Bodine said.

Young, successful fact, sees a batch of 2016 Coastal Carolina successful the existent team.

"Relentless," helium said. "Doesn't backmost down, doesn't springiness up and is not frightened of anybody."

But connected Thursday, Schnall played disconnected each those made-for-social-media headlines and deflected immoderate attraction connected himself to his team. As Schnall stood extracurricular a downtown Omaha indoor signifier installation portion Jay-Z's "Empire State of Mind" thumped successful the inheritance and his players moved astir with a regimented purpose, helium dismissed the conception that his players had thing to prove, oregon that they were motivated by immoderate slights.

"I consciousness similar we did arsenic overmuch arsenic we could to gain the eighth seed," helium said. "The committee didn't spot it that way. Two of the words we unrecorded by are 'own it.' We ain the 13th seed, and our guys person played highly well."

Holbrook's squad bushed Coastal Carolina doubly this season, accounting for astir 20% of the Chanticleers' losses. Things conscionable felt close for them some of those days, helium said. That's baseball.

Holbrook was compelled to halt that time successful April, due to the fact that helium knew the Chanticleers were a peculiar squad and helium figured the coaches needed to perceive that -- adjacent if Schnall disputes helium was upset pursuing that loss.

"We're each looking for that borderline to pb our team," Holbrook said. "That fastener to push. And evidently you tin archer their players person huffy respect for their leader. He's doing a masterful occupation of not lone starring them, but motivating them and having their backmost successful a nationalist setting. And players emotion that.

"He's fired up, man. And he's got his boys playing fired up."