CONWAY, S.C. – Coastal Carolina baseball returns home to host a three-game Sun Belt Conference series versus the Georgia Southern Eagles this weekend, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, April 16-18, at Springs Brooks Stadium.
 
All three games will be video streamed live on ESPN+ and carried on the radio at WRNN Hot Talk 99.5 FM.
  • Game 1 – Friday, 6 p.m. ET
• Game 2 – Saturday, 2 p.m. ET
• Game 3 – Sunday, 1 p.m. ET
  • Coastal heads into the weekend home series at 16-11 overall and 2-4 in Sun Belt play.
• The Chants are coming off an 8-2 win at UNCW (April 14) and are looking to get back on track after dropping five of their last eight games.
• The Chanticleers are 10-5 at home this season and are back at home for the first time since defeating the College of Charleston on March 23.
• CCU is has won just one game in each of its first two conference series, which were both three-game sets on the road at Louisiana (March 26-28) and UTA (April 10-12).
• The offense has four players hitting over .300 on the season in Billy Underwood (.326), Parker Chavers (.324), Eric Brown (.308), and BT Riopelle (.304), while five players have 20 hits or more on the season led by a team-high 35 hits from Chavers.
• On the mound, the pitching staff posts a 4.44 ERA which is fourth in the Sun Belt this season.
  • The Georgia Southern Eagles are 19-13 overall on the season and 7-5 in Sun Belt Conference play having swept ULM at home last weekend, April 9-11.
• The Eagles enter play this weekend at CCU on a six-game winning streak coming off back-to-back midweek wins over North Florida (April 13) and Mercer (April 14).
• GS is a combined 5-5 away from Statesboro, Ga. this season, having gone 5-4 in true road games and 0-1 in neutral site contests.
• Georgia Southern leads the league in hitting at .293 on the year and is led by Mason McWhorter's league-high 50 base hits, Noah Leford's conference-high 11 home runs, and Christian Avant's league-leading 27 runs scored.
• The Eagles also lead the Sun Belt in team ERA at 3.69 on the season, as five different pitchers with eight or more appearances on the year have an ERA under 3.00 on the season.
  • Georgia Southern has a slight 18-17 advantage over Coastal Carolina in the all-time series.
• While the last 10 meetings have been split down the middle at 5-5, the Eagles also hold a 5-4 edge in Sun Belt Conference play since the Chants joined the league in 2017.
• The two teams are also 6-6 all-time versus each other in Conway/Myrtle Beach.
  • Coastal Carolina outscored the Georgia Southern Eagles 9-1 over the final six innings of play and got 4.0-scoreless innings from pitcher Scott Kobos down the stretch in a 9-7 win over the No. 2-seeded Eagles in the 2019 Sun Belt Championship title game at Springs Brooks Stadium.
• The win gave the Chants back-to-back Sun Belt Championships in only three years in the league.
• The 2019 championship was the Chants' 16th conference tournament title in program history and the second as members of the Sun Belt.
  • Coastal Carolina University great Seth Lancaster returns home to Conway, S.C. as the volunteer assistant coach for the Georgia Southern Eagles.
• Named to four All-American teams his senior season in 2018, Lancaster was the only player in the nation to rank among the NCAA top-10 in walks, runs scored, and home runs on the year.
Lancaster finished his career ranked third in CCU history in walks with 146, fifth in home runs with 34, sixth in runs scored with 175, 11th in games played with 214, and 13th in stolen bases with 53 steals.
• Lancaster was drafted in the eighth round (227th overall pick) by the Philadelphia Phillies in the 2018 MLB Draft.
  • With CCU's conference home-opening series versus Appalachian State on April 1-3 postponed due to COVID-19 protocols, this weekend will mark the Sun Belt Conference opener for the Chants in 2021.
• The Chants are 3-0 in their Sun Belt Conference home-opening series history having gone 8-1 over those nine games overall.
      Year          Home Opening Series Opponent        Record
      2017          vs. Arkansas State                                    3-0
      2018          vs. Texas State                                          3-0
      2019          vs. Troy                                                      2-1
      2020          N/A
  • The all-time series is almost dead even as Georgia Southern leads CCU 18-17 all-time.
• Over the last 10 meetings, the two teams have split the contests at 5-5.
• The Eagles also hold a slight 5-4 lead over the Chants in conference play since 2017.
• The two teams have also played to a stalemate of 6-6 all-time in games played at Coastal's home field in Conway/Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
  • Coastal has enjoyed #ThePalace for the first part of the season, as the Chanticleers have played 15 of their first 19 games at home in Springs Brooks Stadium and have gone 10-5 at home this season.
• Last season, the Chants were 11-4 at home overall prior to the cancellation.
• In fact, CCU played just one road game last season, a loss at then-No. 7 NC State on March 4, 2020.
• Since the 2015 season, Coastal has recorded 20 wins or more at home each year, outside of last year's shortened season, and has tallied 143 wins at Springs Brooks Stadium counting this year.
  • Due to the Chanticleers' pause in activities with COVID-19 protocols, the team played an unforeseen road swing that will be the longest of the season.
• Wednesday night's contest at UNCW (April 14) was the eighth consecutive road game for the Chanticleers over the last three weeks, as CCU had five home games postponed during the pause in activities.
• The longest road trip on the original schedule was just four games with a stretch coming in March, two in April, and one in May.
• The eight-game road trip matched the longest since the 2019 season in which the Chanticleers played two games at Illinois (April 2-3), three at South Alabama (April 6-7), one at NC State (April 10), and two more at Little Rock (April 12).
  • The Coastal Carolina baseball program had to pause all baseball activities, including workouts and games, for seven days beginning on March 30 in accordance with the Sun Belt COVID-19 guidelines.
• Coastal's five baseball contests which included a three-game home series against Appalachian State (April 1-3) and back-to-back midweek games at home versus UNCW (April 6) and College of Charleston (April 7) were all postponed for now.
• Rescheduled dates, if any, will be announced when information becomes available.
  • Since March 24, head coach Gary Gilmore has not had his full roster available for a game due to sickness.
• Not counting the injuries that the Chanticleers had coming into the season, Coastal had several players miss time in the four-game series at Louisiana (March 26-29) due to a stomach bug, while the last two-plus weeks have seen several players miss practice and games at UTA (April 10-12) and at UNCW (April 14) due to COVID-19 protocols.
  • For the first time since joining the Sun Belt for the 2017 season, the Chanticleers dropped their first two three-game conference weekend series with series losses at Louisiana (March 26-28) and at UTA (April 10-12).
• Entering this season, Coastal had won 21 of its 30 Sun Belt Conference series since joining the league, including winning nine of its 10 conference series in 2018.
• Overall, the Chants had lost just seven series in conference play since joining the Sun Belt entering the 2021 season and had lost back-to-back conference series just once (2019).
  • Head Coach Gary Gilmore enters the three-game weekend series with Georgia Southern with 990 career wins as the head coach of his alma mater Coastal Carolina.
• That puts #14 just 10 wins away from 1,000 career wins over his 26 years at CCU.
 
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.