Chants’ VanScoter chosen in fifth round by Mariners

CONWAY, S.C. – Coastal Carolina left-handed pitcher Reid VanScoter was chosen by the Seattle Mariners in the fifth round (156th overall pick) of the 2022 Major League Baseball (MLB) Draft on Monday, July 18.

A 2022 Collegiate Baseball second-team All-American and the first Chanticleer to be named the Sun Belt Conference Pitcher of the Year, VanScoter was also named to the All-Sun Belt first team and earned a spot on the ABCA/Rawlings Atlantic All-Region first team last season.

VanScoter went 9-4 with a 3.65 ERA on the season, firing 88.2 innings of work over 16 starts. He led the Sun Belt and ranked in the top-25 nationally in wins and was sixth in the Sun Belt in ERA on the season. He was fourth in the Sun Belt in innings pitched, seventh in strikeouts with 85, and tied for second in the league with 25 strikeouts looking.

In conference play, VanScoter went 7-1 overall with a 2.91 ERA, with his only loss in Sun Belt Conference play coming at home to Georgia State, in which the Chants’ defense made five errors and allowed seven unearned runs. The recent graduate pitched 5.0 innings or more in nine of his 10 starts in SBC play, struck out 56 batters compared to just 14 walks over 58.2 innings pitched in conference play, and held CCU’s SBC opponents to a .228 batting average.

In his two years on the mound at Coastal, as he sat out the abbreviated 2020 season while recovering from an injury, VanScoter went 11-5 overall with a 3.90 ERA. He made 28 appearances on the mound for the Chants, including 20 starts, and struck out 109 hitters over 120 innings pitched. He held opponents to a .260 batting average over his CCU career and walked just 31 batters overall.

VanScoter’s career average of 2.33 walks per nine innings ranks fourth all-time in CCU’s career record books.

With his selection, VanScoter becomes the 106th Coastal Carolina MLB draft pick and the 85th Chanticleer to be selected in the annual first-year player draft under head coach Gary Gilmore.

Along with Eric Brown’s selection in the first round and Michael Knorr’s pick in the third round, Coastal has had at least one player selected in the MLB Draft for 26-straight seasons dating back to the 1997 MLB Draft.

Brown’s first-round selection is a new program-best, topping CCU’s previous high draft pick of Kirt Manwaring, who went as the 31st overall pick in the second round of the 1986 MLB Draft.