4/9/2018 12:00:00 AM | Softball
CONWAY - After winning four straight last week including a sweep of their first three-game series of the year against Sun Belt Conference opponent, Georgia Southern, the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers will hit the road for a mid-week single game versus Colonial Athletic Association opponent, UNC Wilmington Seahawks on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Boseman Field.
Coastal Carolina
The Chants will look to continue their momentum over the last four games as they have it .330 (31-for-94) with eight home runs, six doubles, one triple, and 31 runs batted in.
Multiple Coastal players were at the forefront of their team's success as Courtney Dean, Timi Tooley, and Kassidy Smith all batted .400 for the week.
Tooley may have had the biggest impact of the weekend in the sweep against Georgia Southern as she came into series batting .173, but after going 5-for-9 (.556), the senior centerfielder's average jumped 33 points in the three games. Tooley helped seal a 4-0 victory in game two of the series against the Eagles with a bottom of the sixth inning,
The freshman Dean hit .583(7-for-12), eight runs batted in, scored four, had a triple, a double, and had a first inning, go-ahead two-run homer over the Duke Blue Devils on Wednesday. Dean currently stands in second place of the Sun Belt Conference home run race with 10, just three behind the leader Ivie Drake of Georgia State with 13.
Sophomore Kassidy Smith week was equally important to the team as the Chanticleer's leadoff hitter batted .400 (4-for-10), four runs batted in and five runs scored. Smith belted two home runs in game one win against Georgia Southern, 13-5 in six innings. Earlier in the week against Duke, Smith had an RBI double in the win over Duke.
On Monday the updated NCAA statistics were released and the Chants regained the nation's top spot in home runs/ per game as they jumped to 1.46 in front of the next highest team, Ohio State at 1.31. On the season CCU has a total of 60 home runs while the Buckeyes have 37.
The pitching staff for the Chanticleers had a solid week in the circle. Freshman Kaitlin Beasley-Polko picked up two wins on the week as did junior Ashley Guillette.
Beasley-Polko threw a complete game shutout in the game two over the Eagles and won by the score of 4-0 on Saturday and followed it up on Sunday with the series-sweeping win to pick up her 10th and 11th victories of the season.
UNC Wilmington
UNC Wilmington has a 12-21 overall record and coming into Wednesday's game against the Chanticleers. The Seahawks were able to pull off a late-game rally to win the final game of the three-game series, 5-4.
Hunter Bizzell registered three hits and stole two bases as UNCW was able to come back from a 4-1 deficit by scoring four times in the bottom of the seventh inning en route to the victory.
Haley Lenderman earned the win in relief as she allowed one earned run on three hits over two innings of work.
Kelsey Bryan is the leading hitter for the Seahawks on the year as she's hitting .340 (35-for-103) while scoring 19 runs and has a team-high 13 steals.
UNCW has used four pitchers consistently on the season as they have all have double-digit appearances.
Lenderman has a team-high 17 appearances and his tied for the team lead with four wins. Sarah Davis has 16 appearances on the season and has four complete games. Rylee Pate also has four wins in her 15 appearances. Laurel Koontz has seen action 14 times and has the lowest earned run average on staff at 1.48.
How To Follow
The Seahawks will have live stats and a live stream for the game on the Seahawk Sports Network.
For complete coverage of CCU softball, follow the Chanticleers on social media at @CoastalSB (twitter), @GoCCUSports (Instagram) and facebook.com/CCUChanticleers (
