Coastal Carolina vs Arizona: Revisiting Chanticleers' 2016 CWS title win over Wildcats
Call it scripted. Call it poetic. Call it the baseball gods coming through once again.
Call it whatever you want, but one thing is for certain: The opening game of the 2025 College World Series between No. 13 Coastal Carolina and Arizona has the potential to be a top-tier matchup.
It not only is a matchup between two teams on opposite sides of the country, but the teams have met only once on the diamond in their respective histories: the 2016 College World Series championship series.
The Chanticleers, who are riding a 23-game win streak into the 2025 College World Series, are back in Omaha, Nebraska for the first time since winning it all in their first go-around at the CWS in 2016. That national championship, of course, came against the Wildcats.
"It’s just unbelievable that my first game — I’ve never been to Omaha as a fan or anything — my first game to play in Omaha being against Coastal," Arizona shortstop Mason White told the AZCentral, part of the Paste BN Network.
"I watched every pitch of that series. To see a team like Coastal beat my Arizona was heartbreaking. I know some of the players that played on that (UA) team. I know they’re gonna be watching. I feel like it’s destined, like it was scripted."
The rematch between No. 13 Coastal Carolina and Arizona is set for 2 p.m. ET on June 13 at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha.
Ahead of first pitch, here's look back at the 2016 CWS finals between Coastal Carolina and Arizona:
Who won the 2016 College World Series?
Coastal Carolina took two of three games vs. Arizona in the 2016 College World Series championship series to win its first national championship in program history.
The Chanticleers' title, which also came in their first ever trip to the CWS, also marked the first NCAA championship title for the Big South Conference. Coastal Carolina would then, famously, join the Sun Belt Conference shortly after winning the College World Series.
As noted by the NCAA, Coastal Carolina also became the first team since Minnesota in 1956 to win the title in its first CWS appearance.
G.K. Young, Alex Cunnigham gives Coastal Carolina baseball first CWS title
Both Coastal Carolina and Arizona won their respective brackets as unseeded teams in the 64-team NCAA baseball tournament field.
Arizona shut out Coastal Carolina 3-0 in Game 1 of the CWS finals to take a one-game lead. Coastal Carolina would then come back one night later and force the "if necessary" Game 3 of the best-of-three series with a 5-4 win.
After five scoreless innings in Game 3, Coastal Carolina broke the game open with four runs in the top of the sixth inning against Arizona pitcher Bobby Dalbec, all of which came on two outs. The scoring got started on a two-error play by Wildcats second baseman Cody Ramer that allowed two Chanticleers to cross home. Then G.K. Young walked up to the plate with a runner on second.
On a 0-2 pitch, Young unleashed a 76 mph hanging off-speed pitch into the right field stands for a two-run home run to put Coastal Carolina up 4-0 against Arizona.
"I'm trying not to cry right now. Just dreaming of that in my head since I was 10 years old, hitting a home run in the College World Series. I never would have thought it would come in the championship game," Young said after Coastal Carolina's win.
The Wildcats got back two runs in the sixth inning to make it 4-2 going into the seventh. Things then got interesting in the bottom of the ninth inning when Arizona made it a 4-3 game on a sacrifice fly from Zach Gibbons and a double down the left field line from Ryan Aguilar that put the tying and winning run on second and third with two outs.
Chanticleers freshman right-hander Alex Cunningham then recorded the biggest out in Coastal Carolina baseball history by getting Ryan Haug to chase strike three after working a full count.
"We're not the most talented team in America. We're just the national champion," former Coastal Carolina coach Gary Gilmore said. "That's all that matters."
He added: "This program has been a lot better than people give it credit for. They thought we played in a small conference and couldn't get this done. This bunch wanted to prove everybody wrong."
Coastal Carolina 2016 CWS schedule
To make it to Omaha for the first time in program history, Coastal Carolina went a combined 5-1 in the Raleigh Regional and Baton Rouge Super Regional. Michael Paez walked it off in Game 2 of the Baton Rouge Super Regional vs. No. 8 LSU to send the Chanticleers to Omaha after the Tigers tied it up in the top half of the ninth inning.
Coastal Carolina opened up its first trip to the CWS with a statement win over No. 1 overall seed Florida. Following a dropped game vs. TCU, the Chanticleers ran the table in the "elimination bracket" of Bracket 2 play.
In the "elimination bracket," Coastal Carolina took down No. 5 Texas Tech 7-5 before picking up two consecutive wins in the CWS semifinals vs. the Horned Frogs to advance to its first CWS finals.
Here's a game-by-game breakdown of Coastal Carolina's path to the 2016 CWS title:
- Game 1 (Winner's Bracket): Coastal Carolina 2, (1) Florida 1
- Game 2 (Winner's Bracket): TCU 6, Coastal Carolina 1
- Game 3 (Elimination Bracket): Coastal Carolina 7, (5) Texas Tech 5
- Game 4 (CWS semifinal): Coastal Carolina 4, TCU 1
- Game 5 (CWS semifinal): Coastal Carolina 7, TCU 5
- Game 6 (CWS finals): Arizona 3, Coastal Carolina 0
- Game 7 (CWS finals): Coastal Carolina 5, Arizona 4
- Game 8 (CWS finals): Coastal Carolina 4, Arizona 3