CONWAY, S.C. – The No. 29-nationally ranked Coastal Carolina baseball team will hit the road for the first time in 2022, as the Chanticleers will trek north to face off with familiar foe UNC Wilmington on Wednesday, March 2, at 4 p.m. ET at Brooks Field.
 
The Chanticleers are 7-1 this season and broke into the national rankings by coming in at No. 29 in the Collegiate Baseball week two poll this week. CCU also received votes in both the USA Today Coaches Poll and the NCBWA Poll.
  • •Coastal Carolina is off to a 7-1 start to the 2022 season.
• The 7-1 start is the best start to a season for the Chanticleers since beginning the 2019 season at 7-1.
• The CCU offense ranks in the top-25 nationally in sacrifice bunts (7th), doubles (11th), sacrifice flies (13th), hits (16th), batting average (16th), on-base percentage (17th), base on balls (20th), slugging percentage (22nd), hit by pitch (22nd), runs scored (24th), and doubles per game (25th).
• Junior Cooper Weiss leads the team in hitting at .538 (7-of-13), while Preseason Sun Belt Player of the Year Eric Brown is hitting .462 (12-of-26) and is on a seven-game hitting streak.
• The Coastal pitching staff is holding its opponents to a .229 batting average on the season and has allowed just 27 earned runs over 70.0 innings pitched.
• A total of nine pitchers have seen action this season on the mound but have yet to allow an earned run and have posted a 0.00 ERA.
  • The UNCW Seahawks are 5-2 on the season, and like Coastal, has not played a road game yet with all seven of their games coming at Brooks Field in Wilmington, N.C.
• After starting the season 5-0 with wins over Middle Tennessee, St. John's, and Ball State, the Seahawks dropped back-to-back games of a doubleheader last Saturday versus Rutgers.
• The UNCW offense is hitting just .241 as a team entering play this week but is led by veteran Brooks Baldwin who is hitting a team-high .448 with two home runs, two triples, two doubles, and seven RBIs.
• The pitching staff has held their opponent's offenses in check, striking out 72 batters over 63.0 innings, and has allowed just three home runs on the year.
  • In a series that started in 1975, Coastal Carolina holds a 64-38 advantage over UNCW in the all-time series, including a 27-23 record at Brooks Field in Wilmington, N.C.
• While the Seahawks enter the midweek showdown on a two-game winning streak over the Chanticleers, CCU has won six out of the last 10 meetings and posted a seven-game winning streak in the series from 2015-18.
  • With both Coastal Carolina and UNCW co-hosting the Carolinas Coastline Classic last weekend, the two teams have several common foes already this 2022 season.
• Coastal went a perfect 3-0 versus the two teams' common opponents, going 2-0 versus Ball State and 1-0 versus Rutgers.
• UNCW went 1-2 overall versus the same foes, defeating Ball State and going 0-2 against Rutgers in a doubleheader.
  • Coastal Carolina will play its first road game of the season on Wednesday at UNCW.
• The Chants' midweek clash at UNCW will be the first of a four-game road trip through the Tar Heel state, as CCU will play a three-game weekend series at No. 21 North Carolina Friday thru Sunday, March 4-6.
• Last season, Coastal was just 11-12 in true road contests and 12-13 in games away from #ThePalace of Springs Brooks Stadium in Conway, S.C.
  • Coastal Carolina is off to a 7-1 start to begin the 2022 season.
• The 7-1 start is the best start to a season for the Chants since beginning the 2019 season at 7-1.
• Over the 2020 and 2021 seasons, the Chants began the year at 7-3 over the first 10 games.
  • Coastal enters the midweek contest versus UNCW on a five-game winning streak, including going a perfect 4-0 this past weekend at the Carolinas Coastline Classic.
• The five-game winning streak is the longest of the season and only one win short of the longest winning streak the Chanticleers had in all of 2021, recording six consecutive wins from Feb. 23 to March 6 of last year.
  • Coastal's offense has enjoyed the middle innings of games thus far this season, as the Chanticleers have scored 38 runs combined over the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings this season.
• CCU has outscored its opponents 38-16 over those three innings and 68-41 overall on the year.
• In fact, the Chanticleers have outscored their opponents 20-0 in the fourth inning this season, which includes a pair of six-run fourth innings in back-to-back wins over Ball State last weekend.
  • Known to shuffle his lineup throughout the season, head coach Gary Gilmore has used several different lineups to start the 2022 season.
• Gilley has written out seven different lineups this season and eight different batting orders on his lineup card over the Chants' first eight games of the season.
  • Redshirt freshman Riley Eikhoff (1-0) will be making his first collegiate start on the mound on Wednesday versus the UNCW Seahawks.
• Eikhoff, who missed all of last season while recovering from offseason surgery, is 1-0 this season with a 2.45 ERA in three appearances out of the bullpen.
• He earned his first career win in his last outing versus Rutgers (Feb. 25), allowing one run on six hits over 2.0 innings of work out of the bullpen.
  • With Wednesday afternoon's tilt at UNCW the Chants' fifth game in six days, and Coastal scheduled to play three games at No. 21 North Carolina over the weekend, fans can expect to see Johnny Wholestaff for the midweek contest.
 
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.