Baseball notebook

I had a long conversation with baseball coach Gary Gilmore this morning. I'll have a story in Tuesday's paper advancing the home-and-home series with UNC-Wilmington. Here are some other tidbits/quotes that didn't make the paper:

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The Chants debuted a different lineup in Hawaii, moving Scott Woodward to right field from third base, moving Tyler Bortnick from second to third and inserting Tommy Winegardner at second. There were multiple reasons for the move, according to Gilmore, but he admitted that ultimately he wanted to hopefully awaken the team's sluggish bats by adding another left-handed bat into the lineup.

"We're trying to negate some of those right-handed breaking balls we're seeing," Gilmore said. "And the kid had played well and deserved and opportunity. In some ways, I honestly think with those three speed guys (LF Chance Gilmore, CF Rico Noel and RF Woodward) in the outfield, Bortnick at third and Tommy at second, it's probably one of the better defensive teams I've ever coached."

Woodward was a high school outfielder, so his transition shouldn't be too difficult. It's hard to imagine that many teams have an outfield with that much athleticism. Bortnick, who moved from shortstop to second before the season, has the skills to play anywhere and he doesn't seem to mind another move, especially if it makes the team better.

"I liked it a lot," Bortnick said. "Putting Tommy out there gives us another left-handed bat in the lineup. It helps us mix and match things one through nine. Third base is fine with me. I played a little my freshman year. It's fun. You get to show off the arm a little bit. Scotty in the outfield really helps our team defense."

Winegardner is batting .355 in 31 at bats this season. His performance at the plate will likely ultimately decide whether this experiment is the permanent one. With him in the lineup, either Adam Rice or Dan Bowman will likely serve as the team's designated hitter. Rice had DH'ed over the past few weeks as Bowman took over as the regular right fielder.

"It causes some issues with some other guys not in the lineup, but, at this point, it's not like that choice is having to pick between defense and our best hitter," Gilmore said. "I don't know if that will be the ultimate lineup we stay with forever, but it's too intriguing not to try.

"I don't think it's something that you can etch in stone and say this is how it's going to be, but it's good enough to give it an extended period of time and take a really good, hard look. Can we create enough offense and play good defense with this lineup? Only time will tell."

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Pitchers Keith Hessler and Bobby Gagg will start the two UNC-Wilmington games, leaving Cody Wheeler, Austin Fleet and Anthony Meo to start the weekend series against Gardner-Webb. The coaches had considered using Meo as a midweek starter and weekend reliever, but it seems that Gilmore has scrapped that idea for now.

"It's one of those things do you put Bobby Gagg's experience out there against the Elons, Wake Forests, Virginias and Clemsons?," Gilmore said. "Or do you put Meo out there? The trade off is [Meo] is against the No. 3 starter in the league on Sunday. I think every single Sunday, either way I go, we have a significant advantage in our league at least with talent in my mind. Those midweek games are huge if we want to play in the postseason."

Meo was the team's Friday starter for several weeks before Wheeler took over that role. The freshman is 3-0 with a 2.10 ERA, second only to Wheeler's 2.08, but he has thrown only 25.2 innings. Wheeler has thrown 39.

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I looked at the calendar and figured out that Coastal's players have spent 14 of the past 17 nights either sleeping in a hotel room or on a bus. That's a grueling schedule that has to be wearing on them physically and mentally. I'm sure they are glad to return home for a week.

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EXTRA QUOTES:

Gilmore on team's hitting: "The only thing team isn't doing right now that would make the world perfect is we just haven't been scoring enough runs. We're getting hits, but we just aren't bunching them together. ... We've got one hitter here that has a good weekend but not a lights-out, every-game weekend. I can remember the last two or three years -- Doyle or Raber or Sappelt or Anderson -- would be so unconscious they would lift the whole team up. We just haven't had anyone do that. ... We're trying to create offense with one hit an inning. You just have to hope we'll play through that and figure it out. That's the only thing keeping us from being a legitimate top-20 team is putting that piece together on a consistent basis."

Gilmore on returning home: "Some of the things that happen to us negatively on the road happen to us positively here at home."

Gilmore on the strength of his team: "We didn't play well enough to be 17-1. There were probably two or three of those we should have lost and there have been two or three of these we lost that we should have won. It evens out."

Gilmore on the rest of the season: "We just have to keep being very positive. We're pitching well and playing great defense. I still think over the long haul those things will stand out. If we ever get a group of guys going together, then this team will be really, really good. [Hitting] is the piece. We were hit and miss last year. Once we got it going, we were pretty good. There is too much talent on this team for us not to figure it out."

--------------

The Chants debuted a different lineup in Hawaii, moving Scott Woodward to right field from third base, moving Tyler Bortnick from second to third and inserting Tommy Winegardner at second. There were multiple reasons for the move, according to Gilmore, but he admitted that ultimately he wanted to hopefully awaken the team's sluggish bats by adding another left-handed bat into the lineup.

"We're trying to negate some of those right-handed breaking balls we're seeing," Gilmore said. "And the kid had played well and deserved and opportunity. In some ways, I honestly think with those three speed guys (LF Chance Gilmore, CF Rico Noel and RF Woodward) in the outfield, Bortnick at third and Tommy at second, it's probably one of the better defensive teams I've ever coached."

Woodward was a high school outfielder, so his transition shouldn't be too difficult. It's hard to imagine that many teams have an outfield with that much athleticism. Bortnick, who moved from shortstop to second before the season, has the skills to play anywhere and he doesn't seem to mind another move, especially if it makes the team better.

"I liked it a lot," Bortnick said. "Putting Tommy out there gives us another left-handed bat in the lineup. It helps us mix and match things one through nine. Third base is fine with me. I played a little my freshman year. It's fun. You get to show off the arm a little bit. Scotty in the outfield really helps our team defense."

Winegardner is batting .355 in 31 at bats this season. His performance at the plate will likely ultimately decide whether this experiment is the permanent one. With him in the lineup, either Adam Rice or Dan Bowman will likely serve as the team's designated hitter. Rice had DH'ed over the past few weeks as Bowman took over as the regular right fielder.

"It causes some issues with some other guys not in the lineup, but, at this point, it's not like that choice is having to pick between defense and our best hitter," Gilmore said. "I don't know if that will be the ultimate lineup we stay with forever, but it's too intriguing not to try.

"I don't think it's something that you can etch in stone and say this is how it's going to be, but it's good enough to give it an extended period of time and take a really good, hard look. Can we create enough offense and play good defense with this lineup? Only time will tell."

--------------

Pitchers Keith Hessler and Bobby Gagg will start the two UNC-Wilmington games, leaving Cody Wheeler, Austin Fleet and Anthony Meo to start the weekend series against Gardner-Webb. The coaches had considered using Meo as a midweek starter and weekend reliever, but it seems that Gilmore has scrapped that idea for now.

"It's one of those things do you put Bobby Gagg's experience out there against the Elons, Wake Forests, Virginias and Clemsons?," Gilmore said. "Or do you put Meo out there? The trade off is [Meo] is against the No. 3 starter in the league on Sunday. I think every single Sunday, either way I go, we have a significant advantage in our league at least with talent in my mind. Those midweek games are huge if we want to play in the postseason."

Meo was the team's Friday starter for several weeks before Wheeler took over that role. The freshman is 3-0 with a 2.10 ERA, second only to Wheeler's 2.08, but he has thrown only 25.2 innings. Wheeler has thrown 39.

--------------

I looked at the calendar and figured out that Coastal's players have spent 14 of the past 17 nights either sleeping in a hotel room or on a bus. That's a grueling schedule that has to be wearing on them physically and mentally. I'm sure they are glad to return home for a week.

--------------

EXTRA QUOTES:

Gilmore on team's hitting: "The only thing team isn't doing right now that would make the world perfect is we just haven't been scoring enough runs. We're getting hits, but we just aren't bunching them together. ... We've got one hitter here that has a good weekend but not a lights-out, every-game weekend. I can remember the last two or three years -- Doyle or Raber or Sappelt or Anderson -- would be so unconscious they would lift the whole team up. We just haven't had anyone do that. ... We're trying to create offense with one hit an inning. You just have to hope we'll play through that and figure it out. That's the only thing keeping us from being a legitimate top-20 team is putting that piece together on a consistent basis."

Gilmore on returning home: "Some of the things that happen to us negatively on the road happen to us positively here at home."

Gilmore on the strength of his team: "We didn't play well enough to be 17-1. There were probably two or three of those we should have lost and there have been two or three of these we lost that we should have won. It evens out."

Gilmore on the rest of the season: "We just have to keep being very positive. We're pitching well and playing great defense. I still think over the long haul those things will stand out. If we ever get a group of guys going together, then this team will be really, really good. [Hitting] is the piece. We were hit and miss last year. Once we got it going, we were pretty good. There is too much talent on this team for us not to figure it out."