CONWAY, S.C. – The No. The No. 8 Coastal Carolina Baseball team will be looking to end its regular season road schedule on a high this weekend.
All three games can be streamed via ESPN+. In the Conway/Myrtle Beach areas, fans can listen on WRNN’s Hot Talk 99.5FM.
SCHEDULE
Friday, May 12,
7:30 p.m. ET – USA – RHP Leif Moore (3-1 ERA, 3.55) vs. CCU-RHP Riley Eikhoff (0-1, 6.06 ERA)
Saturday, 13 May
3 p.m. ET – USA – RHP Jeremy Lee (2-6 ERA, 5.40) vs. CCU – LHP Liam Doyle (1-0, 4.88 ERA)
Sunday, May 14.
Noon ET – USA vs. CCU (TBA)
The Chants
• Coastal Carolina is 30-17 overall and 17-7 in Sun Belt Conference play this year.
• The Chanticleers enter the weekend at South Alabama (May 12-14) tied atop the Sun Belt Conference regular-season standings with Southern Miss at 17-7.
• CCU has won 16 of its last 25 games but is just 4-6 over its last 10 games.
• This season, the Chanticleers are 11-7 overall on the road but are 9-3 on the road in Sun Belt Conference play.
• As a team, the Chants are hitting .304 overall, which leads the Sun Belt and ranks 30th nationally, as nine players are hitting over .300 on the season.
• The offense leads the Sun Belt in seven offensive statistical categories – runs (437), scoring (9.3), batting average (.304), on-base percentage (.416), slugging percentage (.538), doubles (111), and doubles per game (2.36).
• CCU’s pitching staff has struck out 511 batters compared to just 240 walks on the year and leads the Sun Belt with an average of 11.0 strikeouts per nine innings, which ranks seventh nationally.
• Defensively, the Chants lead the SBC and rank fifth nationally with 47 double plays turned and are fourth in the league with a .969 fielding percentage overall.
JAGUARS
• The South Alabama Jaguars are 23-24 overall and 11-13 in conference play.
• The Jaguars are 15-13 at home this season but have dropped each of their last three games in a road sweep at Southern Miss (May 5-7) last weekend.
• South Alabama’s offense is at the bottom of the Sun Belt this season, hitting .271 overall as a team with 50 home runs and 313 runs scored.
• However, the Jaguars take what they can get at the plate, as they rank fifth in the league in both walks (249) and hit-by-pitch (76).
• The pitching staff has posted an ERA of 5.97 on the season and ranks in the top five of the Sun Belt in WHIP (1.60), strikeouts per nine innings (9.5), and fewest hits allowed per nine innings (9.55).
• The USA pitchers have struck out 431 hitters compared to just 218 walks on the season, while their opponents have posted a .271 average at the plate.
ALL-TIME SERIES HISTORY WITH SOUTH ALABAMA
• Coastal holds a slight edge over South Alabama in the all-time series at 13-10 overall and 9-6 in regular-season conference play since CCU joined the league prior to the 2017 season.
• The last 10 matchups have been split down the middle, as each team has won five games over the 10 meetings over the last four years.
• South Alabama ended the Chanticleers season in 2021, defeating Coastal 14-7 in the 2021 Sun Belt Conference Baseball Championship Tournament.
RANK’EM
• For the first time this season, the Chanticleers were ranked in a national top-25 poll on March 27.
• Coastal came in at No. D1Baseball Top 25 Rankings, Coastal was ranked No. In the NCBWA NCAA Division I poll, conducted on 27 March, 28th place was awarded to Georgia Tech.
• Since then, the Chants have been in at least one national poll in each of the last six weeks.
• In the most recent polls that came out on May 8, the Chants were in all six polls – No. 8 (Perfect Game), No. 8 (Baseball America), No. 8 (D1Baseball), No. No. 9 (USA Today Coaches Poll), No. 10 (NCBWA) and No. No. 19 (Collegiate Baseball).
• The last time that the Chanticleers were ranked in the top 10 in the majority of the national polls prior to this season was back in 2010, when they broke into the top 10 in three of the five polls on April 19, 2010.
• Since being ranked, the Chanticleers have gone 16-9 overall.
Tough Sledding
• This season, the Chanticleers have played one of the toughest schedules in all of NCAA Division I.
• In fact, Chants have the second-toughest schedule in all of NCAA Division I baseball to date, according to the NCAA, behind only Kentucky of the SEC.
Lot on the Line – For Both Teams
• There is a lot on the line in terms of the Sun Belt Conference regular-season standings for both teams this weekend in Mobile, Ala.
• Coastal heads to South Alabama tied for first place in the conference regular-season standings with Southern Miss at 17-7 overall and two games ahead of third-place Texas State (15-9).
• South Alabama enters the weekend at 11-13 in conference play, which has the Jaguars tied for 10th overall in the standings and four games ahead of Arkansas State (6-16).
• Only the top 10 teams in the regular season standings make the conference postseason tournament.
TBA vs. TBA
• Sunday’s series finale will see TBA vs. TBA on the mound in the noon ET contest.
• This season, Coastal is 4-1 when throwing TBA, with Sunday wins at Georgia State (April 2), at Old
Dominion (April 16, at Louisiana (April 30, and against Appalachian State May 7), with the loss coming Sunday in the final series versus Texas State.
• Versus TBA this season, Chants are 4-1 with wins versus Davidson (March 5), Old Dominion (April 16), College of Charleston (April 19), and Louisiana (April 30), and the loss coming versus Southern Miss (April 23).
The ONE and DONE rule
• This season, the Chanticleers have lost two games to the same team just once.
• The lone team to beat the Chanticleers twice this season has been the Clemson Tigers, with a home win over CCU on April 4 and a road victory in Conway, S.C., on May 10.
• Overall, CCU’s 17 losses have come to 16 different teams, with one loss each to VCU (Feb. 19), No. NC State (Feb. 21), Creighton(Feb.26), College of Charleston(Feb.28), Illinois (March11), James Madison (March18), Texas State, (March25), Clemson (4 April), Georgia Southern (7 April), No. Campbell (10 April), Old Dominion (14) and No. No. 23/24 Southern Miss, (April 23), and No. Wake Forest (April 25), Louisiana, Charlotte, Charlotte-Mecklenburg (May 2) and Appalachian State (5 May) are the No.
Home Away from Home
• Last season in conference play, the Chants felt right at home when playing on the road.
• In 2022, CCU went 12-3 overall on the road in Sun Belt Conference play, winning four of the five conference road series on the year.
• Coastal recorded three sweeps on the road in conference play, winning all three games at Arkansas State (April 1-3), at Appalachian State (April 14-16), and at Troy (May 13-15).
• So far this year, the Chants have gone 9-3 in conference play on the road with a series win at new conference member James Madison (March 17-19) on the opening weekend of conference play, a 3-0 sweep of Georgia State (March 31-April 2) in Atlanta, Ga., a 2-1 series win at Old Dominion (April 14-16), and the Chants’ first-ever series win at Louisiana (April 28-30) in Lafayette, La.
• The Men in Teal have won eight straight conference series on the road dating back to last year.
For complete coverage of CCU baseball, follow the Chants on social media @CoastalBaseball (Twitter), facebook.com/CCUChanticleers (Facebook), @GoCCUsports (Instagram), or visit the official home of Coastal Carolina Athletics at www.GoCCUsports.com.
