CONWAY - The Coastal Carolina softball team returns to action on Thursday and Friday, April 1-2, for a three-game set against the Sun Belt Conference leader, Texas State, at Bobcat Stadium in San Marcos, Texas. The doubleheader will begin at 6 p.m. ET on Thursday and can be viewed on ESPN+.

The Chanticleers are coming into the series with an overall record of 8-13 and 1-5 in conference play. Meanwhile, the Bobcats are going into the matchup with a 21-3 overall record, a perfect 5-0 SBC record, and a 14-game winning streak.

• The Chanticleers are on the road for their third Sun Belt Conference series this season as they travel to Texas State for a three-game series on April 1-2. Coastal has an overall record of 8-13 this season and 1-5 in conference play. On the road, CCU is 3-5 overall this season away from the friendly confines of St. John Stadium and 1-2 in SBC play.
• CCU is batting .275 in 11 games at home compared to .249 in eight games on the road this season.
• Junior Abbey Montoya leads the Chanticleers with a .333 batting average in seven road games this season. The Chanticleer shortstop has tallied a home run, two RBI, forced a walk in her 21 at-bats.
• Graduate student Kayla Rosado has batted .300 (6-for-20), with three doubles, a home run, and forced five walks in all eight of Coastal's road games.
• The Chants pitching staff has an ERA of 4.76 in 11 home games compared to 4.92 ERA in eight games on the road this season.
• Senior Kaitlin Beasley-Polko leads the Chanticleer pitching staff with a 2.90 road earned run average in five appearances.

• Last week on March 24,  Coastal played just two games at non-conference Charleston Southern. The Chants and Bucs split the midweek doubleheader by the scores of 7-8 and 7-6.  
• The Chanticleers jumped out to a 1-0 lead in game one, but the Buccaneers scored six unanswered runs, including at least a run in five-straight innings before the Chants got fourth-inning home runs from Courtney Dean and  Mackenzie Beyer. Kayla Rosado tied the score, 7-7, in the fifth inning with her third home run of the season, but Charleston Southern's Erica Cooper homered off CCU reliever Raelee Brabham in the bottom of the fifth to seal the 8-7 victory for her team
• In game two, Courtney Dean led Coastal to a 7-6 victory with three RBI, including her second and third home runs of the day. Iyanla De Jesus won her second game of the season with her second complete of the year. The Mill Creek, Wash., native tied her season-high strikeouts in the victory.

• Tacoma, Wash., native Makiya Thomas has hit safely in 16 of the 21 Chanticleer games this season.
• Thomas is 12th in the conference with a .371 batting average, 18th with a .571 slugging percentage, and 25th with a .403 on-base percentage.
• Currently, the CCU senior has a team-high four-game hitting streak, .500 (7-for-14), added two doubles, stole three bases, and scored three runs.
• Thomas is leading the team in eight offensive categories, including; batting average (.371), at-bats (70), hits (26), multi-hit games (9), runs scored (14), doubles (8), total bases (40), and stolen bases (10).
• The left-handed batter is one of two Chanticleers to be selected to the 2021 preseason All-Sun Belt team.

• Before the March 24 doubleheader at Charleston, senior Courtney Dean started all 19 games for CCU and batted .200 with three home runs and 12 RBI.
• Dean's batting averaged jumped 46 points in the two verses CSU to .246. The Coastal outfielder batted 4-for-7, knocked in five runs, scored three runs, and blasted three home runs in the midweek split.
• Dean's three home runs in the two games versus Charleston Southern puts her one home run shy of the top five in school history.
• With her 36 career home runs, the Indian Trail, N.C., native puts her behind Sarah Lockett's ('01) 37 career home runs for fifth all-time.

• Texas State is 21-3 overall and a perfect 5-0 in conference play. The Bobcats have won 14 straight games, including Tuesday's 8-0 win versus Tarleton State and conference sweeps of Georgia State and Appalachian State.
• In the latest ESPN/USA Softball and USA Today/NFCA Softball Polls, Texas State has gotten recognition nationally as they have received votes.
• Offensively, the Bobcats are led by two .400 hitters, Sara Vanderford and Tara Oltmann. Vanderford leads the team with a .478 batting average with a team-leading 32 hits, 12 doubles, 23 runs, seven home runs, and a .970 slugging percentage. Oltmann is the reigning Sun Belt Player of the Week as led TXST to a sweep of Georgia State last weekend where she batted .667, two doubles, tallied 11 bases, and had an on-base percentage of .729.
• Jessica Mullins leads the pitching staff in 2021 with 18 appearances, a 10-2 record with 92 strikeouts in 81 innings of work.

• The series dates back to 2017, Coastal's first season in the Sun Belt Conference.
• The Bobcats hold the 6-2 all-time advantage.
• Texas State won the first six games of the series as they held CCU to 1.8 runs per game in that span.
• The Chanticleers won the 2019 series, 2-1, as they averaged 7.3 runs per game in the series and 9.5 runs over the final two games when they won by the scores of 7-4 and 12-2
• In the 2019 series win, the Coastal Carolina trio of Dean, Stavi Augur, and Taylor Sweigart combined for a batting average of .323 (10-for-31), six runs scored, eight RBI, and two home runs.