Conway, S.C. – Coastal Carolina baseball will open up the 2020 season with the Brittain Resorts Baseball at the Beach event this weekend, Feb. 14-16, at Springs Brooks Stadium. The Chanticleers will host UNCG, San Diego State, and Virginia Tech for the opening weekend of play.
 
The three days of play will begin with the first game each day beginning at 11 a.m. ET. Coastal will play UNCG on Friday at 4 p.m. ET, SDSU on Saturday at 3 p.m. ET, and Virginia Tech on Sunday at 3 p.m. ET.
 
COASTAL IN SEASON OPENERS
• Since 1974, Coastal Carolina is 31-13 overall in season openers.
• Since 2000, the Chanticleers are 18-2 in season openers with the lone two losses coming to Pittsburgh to start the 2014 season and at Campbell in the 2005 season opener.
• In home openers, the Chanticleers are 34-9, including a perfect 5-0 mark at Springs Brooks Stadium.
• Since head coach Gary Gilmore took over at his alma mater in 1996, Coastal is 20-4 in season openers, while posting a 22-2 record when playing its first home game of the season under Gilmore.
• CCU's lone home-opening losses under Gilmore were versus Pittsburgh in 2014 and North Carolina in 1998.
 
FAMILIAR FOES FOR OPENING WEEKEND
• The season-opening Brittain Resorts Baseball at the Beach event this weekend consists of two familiar foes in UNC Greensboro and Virginia Tech.
• Coastal hosted Virginia Tech in this same event back in 2018, defeating the Hokies 17-2 in the tournament opener.
• CCU is 7-4 all-time versus the VT Hokies, which includes a five-game winning streak from 2007 to 2011.
• Despite not playing each other since 2016, in which the two teams split their two games with one win each at the Coastal Carolina Invitational, UNCG and CCU have met 15 times on the diamond overall.
• The Spartans hold an 11-4 advantage over the Chanticleers in the all-time series, despite CCU having won two of the last three meetings this century.
 
NEW SEASON BRINGS NEW OPPONENT
• With the start of the new season comes new opponents for the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers, as the Chants will meet the San Diego State Aztecs for the first time on opening weekend.
• The Chants are 2-0 all-time versus teams from the Mountain West Conference having defeated UNLV twice in 2005 at the NCAA Tempe Regional hosted by Arizona State.
• San Diego State will be one of four first-time match-ups for the Chants this season which also includes games versus Saint Joseph's (Feb. 21), Kennesaw State (Feb. 23), and Middle Tennessee State (March 6-8).
 
25TH SEASON FOR GILLEY
• CCU head coach Gary Gilmore is in his 25th season at the helm of his alma mater.
• Over his 24 seasons at Coastal Carolina, he has posted a record of 963-502-2 and made 16 NCAA Regional appearances since 2001.
• He has led the Chants to three NCAA Division I Super Regionals (2008, '10, '16) on top of winning the 2016 CWS National Championship.
• Under his tutelage, the Chants won Big South regular-season titles and 11 Big South Championship tournament titles.
• Since moving to the Sun Belt prior to the 2017 season, CCU has won two Sun Belt regular season-titles and two Sun Belt tournament titles.
• He was tabbed the 2016 National Coach of the Year (ABCA, NCBWA, Collegiate Baseball, D1baseball, HERO Sports, Perfect Game/Rawlings) and is a two-time ABCA Atlantic Region Coach of the Year.
• He has also been named the conference Coach of the Year a total of 10 times since 1999.
 
FAST STARTS
• The Chanticleers will look to continue their recent history of strong starts to the season, as they have lost just one game over the last two years in their season-opening tournament.
• Over the last two seasons, the Chants have gone 6-1 in their season-opening tournaments with the lone loss coming to then No. 17 Indiana back in 2018.
• Last season, CCU started the season by winning seven-straight games and went 8-2 over its first 10 contests.
• In 2018, the Chants went 3-0 to start the year and also went 8-2 over their first 10 games of the season.
 
HOME SWEET HOME
• Coastal will enjoy its home field for the first month and a half of the season, as 15 of the Chants' first 18 games will come at Springs Brooks Stadium.
• CCU's lone three road games in the first four weeks of the season are at UNC Wilmington (Feb. 18), at the College of Charleston (Feb. 26), and at NC State (March 4).
 
CHANT FIRST - PICKED SECOND IN EAST DIVISION IN PRESEASON POLL
• Coastal Carolina, the two-time defending Sun Belt Conference Championship Tournament champions, was picked to finish second in the Sun Belt East Division in the 2020 Sun Belt Conference Coaches' Preseason Poll.
• The Chanticleers garnered four first-place votes and a total of 61 points in the annual preseason poll.
• Coastal was selected second, just one point behind East Division preseason favorite South Alabama (62 points).
 
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.