Adding comment number to index page

I am trying to show the number of comments on each post to the index page of https://www.palmettoscoop.com next to the author and the date.

Here’s the code as it is now:

<div class=”top_left_post”>
<?php c2c_get_recent_posts(2, “
<div class=\”rightside_index_entry\”><h2>%post_URL%</h2>%post_excerpt%
<div class=’cpl_postmeta’>Continue Reading: %post_URL_short%
By %post_author% | %post_date%</div></div>”,”34″); ?>
</div>

All I can find is the comments_number php to be used inside the loop. But it doesn’t work here.

How can I get the comment number to appear after %post_date% on the same line and in the same font, etc.