CONWAY – After a weekend where the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers softball team (4-1) hosted the 13-game Kickin' Chicken Classic they head off on the road Wednesday to Charleston Southern (3-3) in Goose Creek for a mid-week match-up with their former Big South foe at the CSU Softball Complex. The CCU will look to improve on their all-time 66-35 record versus the Buccaneers.

Coastal Carolina

The Chanticleers are coming off a successful Kickin' Chicken Classic where they picked up four wins against UIC, Boston, Rider twice, and had a chance to pick up a fifth but lost to No. 8 Tennessee, 3-1 in the opening game of the season.

Coastal has gotten off to a hot start at the plate and are led by two sophomores, Taylor Sweigart and Courtney Dean.

Sweigart, so far in four games has batted .462 (6-for-13), with a triple, double, and four runs batted. The Mertztown, Pennsylvania native has been on base over 50 percent of the time and has been successful two times in four stolen base attempts. Defensively, Sweigart has been solid at second base where she has had 20 chances and has kept a spotless fielding percentage.

Coming in 2019, Dean was the focal part of the CCU lineup as she was named to the All-Sun Belt team and so far she has lived up to the billing. It took couple games as the Indian Trail, North Carolina native went hitless (0-for-4) through the first two games of the season, but in the last three games, Dean has gone 5-for-8 (.625) with a home run, double, and four runs batted in.

A pleasant surprise for the Chanticleers has been freshman outfielder Sydney Guess who earned a spot into the starting lineup where her bat has shined. Guess so far has gone 6-for-16 and has picked up big hits, highlighted by her first career base hit of her career against Tennessee.

CCU pitchers have been gotten off to a great start as well as they have a staff ERA of 1.88. Senior Ashley Guillette (2-0), sophomore Kaitlin Beasley-Polko (2-1), and junior Ally Marcano all combined to throw back-to-back shutouts Saturday versus Rider and Boston respectively. The newcomer Marcano saw action in the 5-0 win versus Rider where she pitched the last two innings

Charleston Southern

In the CSU's (3-3) three wins so far in 2019, they have averaged eight runs per game and won by an average of 6.7 runs.

This past weekend the Bucs hosted the Willie Jewell Classic and picked up wins against Dayton (9-1), Maryland-Eastern Shore two times (5-1, 10-2).

Offensively, Sarah Brown led Charleston Southern with a .526 (10-for-19) batting average over the six games  and the third baseman had a triple, double, three RBI, and four stolen bases.

Notably, three Buccaneers have five RBI or more already in 2019. Caitlyn Emberson leads the team with nine, Jade Gandara has eight, and Annie Bakenhus has five.

Arizona Pilgrim is the staff ace early in 2019 as she has racked up 24 innings, starting four games with two completed.  Pilgrim has a record of 1-3 with a 4.08 ERA.

First pitch is set for 4 p.m. and will be shown on ESPN+.

As season ago at St. John Stadium, the Chanticleers defeated Charleston Southern, 2-1, with the help of a Chelsea D'Avilar sixth inning go-ahead home run.

For complete coverage of CCU softball, follow the Chanticleers on social media at @CoastalSB (twitter), @GoCCUSports (Instagram) and facebook.com/CCUChanticleers (Facebook) or visit the official home of Coastal Carolina Athletics at goccusports.com.