Fans greet, celebrate CCU Baseball returning home from CWS Finals

CONWAY, SC (WMBF) - Coastal Carolina University’s baseball team may have come up short in the College World Series, but they received a hero’s welcome back home in Conway.

The runner-up Chants returned from Omaha on Monday, where it was nothing but smiles and sweat as fans braced the heat to cheer the team off the bus.

Chanticleer fans of all ages gathered on campus to give the CWS runners-up a warm welcome home.

“Even though they didn’t bring home the championship, they are chantions in our hearts,” Kendal Lowry said. “We wanted to welcome them back and let them know we support them 100%; we bleed teal always.”

CCU put up a fight against LSU during the CWS final in Omaha, but lost out on the national championship when they couldn’t pull out wins on Saturday and Sunday.

Fans started lining the walkway with homemade signs and lots of teal flags about an hour before the bus arrived at CCU.

Players and coaches signed autographs and took pictures with fans in the crowd.

Coastal Athletics Fan Engagement Student Assistant Gray Bray said the support blew him away.

“I mean, it’s getting me emotional, and I know it does a lot for the team as well, so it’s just so awesome to see as many people show up as they did,” Bray said.

One family with a personal connection to one of CCU’s players came out to congratulate center fielder Wells Skyes for a historic season of hard work.

“Every time he did something, we would get really excited,” Brandi Baker said. ”His home run yesterday: we went crazy at our house.”

The Chants won 56 games this season. Aynor native Emerson Rabon said he will never forget watching his favorite team play in Omaha.

“To see them go far and beat all these way bigger teams, it’s just really cool to see that,” Rabon said.

The Chants will look to regroup next year to hopefully bring a second CWS trophy home, with the new season starting back up in February.

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