CONWAY, S.C. – The Coastal Carolina baseball team will host a first-time foe this weekend in the Florida International University Panthers on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, March 12-14. The two teams will play one game on Friday beginning at 4 p.m. ET, a twin tilt on Saturday starting at noon ET, and the series finale on Sunday at noon ET.
  • The Chanticleers received votes in three of the five nationally recognized polls this week.
• Coastal received votes in the USA Today Coaches Poll, the NCBWA Poll, and the Perfect Game Top 25 poll this week.
  • Coastal enters the four-game weekend series with the FIU Panthers at 8-3 overall and having won seven of its last eight contests.
• The Chanticleers received votes in three of the five national polls this weekend - USA Today Coaches Poll, the NCBWA Poll, and the Perfect Game Top 25 poll.
• Over the last two weekends of play at home inside Springs Brooks Stadium, the Chants as a team have hit .316 with 16 home runs, five triples, and 14 doubles.
• During that span, the Chants have outscored their opponents 67-40 and scored double-digit runs in four of the seven games.
• The Coastal offense has 10 different players that have hit a combined 20 home runs which ranks seventh nationally and first in the Sun Belt Conference.
• Three players are hitting .300 or better on the season in Nick Lucky (.333), BT Riopelle (.316), and Eric Brown (.311), while Alex Gattinelli leads the team in home runs with four long balls on the season.
  • The FIU Panthers enter the weekend at 4-6 overall and on a four-game losing streak.
• The Panthers received one first-place vote and were picked to finish third in the 2021 C-USA Preseason Baseball Coaches Poll.
• FIU has seven players hitting over .300 at the plate on the season, however, their pitching staff has a 7.20 team ERA having allowed 72 earned runs over 90.0 innings.
  • Coastal Carolina and Florida International will be playing for the first time this weekend.
  • This season the Chanticleers and Panthers have one common foe in the Miami (Ohio) RedHawks.
• CCU defeated Miami (Ohio) 5-3 with the help of three home runs last weekend (March 6) at the Baseball at the Beach event.
• FIU split a four-game weekend series with the RedHawks at 2-2 on Feb. 26-28. In the two losses, the Panthers gave up 21 and 15 runs, respectively, to Miami (Ohio).
  • Coastal Carolina, which joined the Sun Belt in 2016, is the newest full-time member of the Sun Belt Conference.
• FIU was a full-time member of the Sun Belt from 1998-2012 and left the conference prior to the 2013-14 season to join Conference USA.
  • The Chanticleers have been nearly .500 versus teams from the Sunshine state outside of Florida State and Miami (Fla.) in the program's history, as Coastal is a combined 10-11 against teams from Florida that are not currently in the ACC.
 

Bethune-Cookman                    1-0	Florida State                 0-13
Florida                                       1-1	Miami                            0-11
Florida A&M                              1-0	Totals                            0-24
FAU                                           1-0
Jacksonville                              0-3
North Florida                             1-0
Saint Leo                                   0-2
South Florida                            0-2
Stetson                                     3-0
Tampa                                      0-2
UCF                                         2-1
Totals                                     10-11

  • Coastal Carolina ranks seventh nationally and first in the Sun Belt with 20 home runs over the first 11 games this year.
• The Chanticleers have hit 19 home runs at home at Springs Brooks Stadium.
• Coastal has hit at least one home run in nine of its 11 games this season, including multiple home runs in six of those contests.
• A total of 10 different players have hit at least one home run this season and at least one home run has come from all nine spots in the batting order.
  • The Chanticleers have been feast or famine at the plate this season.
• While Coastal has hit 20 home runs as a team this season, the Chants have also struck out a combined 138 times.
  • The Chanticleers' weekend rotation will again consist of right-handed pitchers Jacob Maton and Nick Parker.
• Maton will make his fourth Friday start this weekend versus FIU. The redshirt sophomore is 2-1 on the season with a 2.45 ERA and 15 strikeouts over 14.2 innings of work.
• Parker will get the ball on in game one of the doubleheader on Saturday. The junior is 1-0 with a 5.17 ERA over three starts this season and is coming off a quality start of 6.0 innings versus Miami (Ohio) last Saturday (March 6).
• Penciled in to start game two of the doubleheader on Saturday is graduate transfer, Reece Maniscalco. A surprise start in Monday's game versus UConn (March 8), Maniscalco (1-0) made his CCU debut to allow three runs on four hits and three strikeouts over 3.0-complete innings in the win over the Huskies.
• Getting the start on Sunday for the second-straight weekend is freshman Keaton Hopwood. The righty is 2-0 with a 6.75 ERA in four appearances this year and has fanned seven batters over 9.1 innings on the mound.
  • In just his second career start, redshirt sophomore Jacob Maton registered a quality start versus Bryant (Feb. 26).
• In his first career win, Maton scattered seven hits and struck out four batters over 6.0-scoreless innings.
• His four punch-outs matched his career-high, but he also did not walk a single batter in the victory.
• Nick Parker picked up his first quality start of the season last weekend versus Miami (Ohio) (March 6), as the junior allowed just three runs on three hits, three walks, and three strikeouts over 6.0-plus innings in the win.
 
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.