Coastal Carolina upends Duke to force decisive game in regional

It will all come down to the final game of the Conway regional.

Coastal Carolina beat Duke 8-6 on Sunday night at Springs Brooks Stadium, giving the No. 1 seed Chanticleers their third straight elimination game win after losing the opening game of the regional.

That sets up a winner-take-all game at 6 p.m. Monday, with the winner advancing to a three-game super regional series at Virginia, which is the No. 7 overall seed for the NCAA baseball championship.

If Duke (37-22) had won Sunday night, it would’ve punched that ticket by sweeping the regional. Coastal Carolina (42-20) knocked out Rider earlier Sunday, paying back the Broncs after Rider upset Coastal Carolina on the opening night of the regional.

The Blue Devils fell behind early after Graham Brown hit a grand slam in the first inning, and then things tightened up and stayed that way for a while.

Damon Lux hit a grand slam for Duke in the second inning to give the Blue Devils a 5-4 lead, that coming after Alex Stone hit a solo homer.

Coastal’s Payton Eeles doubled in the game-tying run in the fourth, and the game held a 5-5 score until the seventh, when Caden Bodine tripled to score Eeles, and then Derek Bender hit a two-run homer.

Stone hit his second home run of the game to bring Duke within two runs in the eighth, but that was as close as the Blue Devils got.

Earlier Sunday, Coastal Carolina’s Jack Billings retired the first 18 batters he faced and the Chanticleers jumped in front with a five-run second inning to knock out fourth-seeded Rider.

Things got hairy in the late innings, with Rider scoring four runs in the eighth to make it 10-5. Coastal Carolina added three runs in the ninth to regain the eight-run advantage it had in the middle innings.

Eeles was 3-for-5 with five RBI and Chad Born was 3-for-4 with four RBI to lead Coastal’s offense.