CONWAY, S.C. – The Coastal Carolina baseball team will head south to Statesboro, Ga., for a pivotal Sun Belt Conference weekend series at No. 17/24 nationally-ranked Georgia Southern on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, April 29 - May 1.
  • Friday, April 29 – 6:30 p.m. ET (WRNN Hot Talk 99.5 FM / ESPN+)
• Saturday, April 30 – 2 p.m. ET (WRNN Hot Talk 99.5 FM / ESPN+)
• Sunday, May 1 – 1 p.m. ET (WRNN Hot Talk 99.5 FM / ESPN+)
  • Coastal Carolina returns to Sun Belt Conference play this weekend at Georgia Southern at 23-14-1 overall and 11-6-1 in conference play.
• The Chanticleers enter the weekend on a four-game winning streak having swept UTA (April 22-24) last weekend and then defeating College of Charleston (April 26) on Tuesday in midweek action.
• The Chants are 9-8 on the road this season but have swept each of their previous two conference road series weekends with three wins at Arkansas State (April 1-3) and Appalachian State (April 14-16).
• Three Chants in Tyler Johnson (.365), Eric Brown (.328), and Nick Lucky (.300) are all hitting over .300 on the season, while six different Chants have driven in 27 or more RBIs on the year, led by Lucky's team-leading 30 runs batted in.
• The pitching is in the middle of the pack in the Sun Belt this year, as the Chants' arms have posted a 4.76 ERA.
• However, the Chants lead the Sun Belt in strikeout-to-walk ratio at 2.54 and are second in both strikeouts per nine innings at 9.5 and walks allowed per nine innings at 3.73.
  • Georgia Southern enters the weekend series with CCU at 28-13 overall and 14-4 in Sun Belt Conference play.
• The Eagles are 16-4 overall at home this season and have won eight of their last 10 contests.
• The offense is hitting .268 with 37 home runs, 233 RBIs, and 253 total runs scored over their 41 games this season which is all in the middle of the pack in the Sun Belt Conference.
• The GS pitching staff is holding their opponents to a .258 batting average on the season and have posted an ERA of 4.92 on the season while striking out 294 batters over 367.1 innings pitched.
  • Coastal trails Georgia Southern 18-20 in the all-time series and is just 9-12 overall versus the Eagles in Statesboro, Ga.
• The Chants and the Eagles will be meeting for the first time in Statesboro, Ga., since 2018, as the last seven matchups have come at Springs Brooks Stadium in Conway, S.C.
• In fact, one of those seven contests at Coastal Carolina was the 2019 Sun Belt Conference Baseball Championship title game (May 26), where the Chanticleers came from behind to defeat the Eagles 9-6 and win the 2019 Sun Belt Conference championship title.
  • Coastal and Georgia Southern have played four common Sun Belt Conference foes this season in Appalachian State, Arkansas State, Texas State, and Georgia State, as well as one non-conference foe in regional opponent College of Charleston.
    Opponent                          CCU                GS
    vs. Appalachian State........ 3-0............... 2-1
    vs. Arkansas State............. 3-0............... 3-0
    vs. Texas State................... 1-2............... 2-1
    vs. Georgia State................ 0-3............... 3-0
    vs. College of Charleston..   1-0............... 1-0
    TOTALS............................... 8-5............. 10-2
  • Coastal heads to Statesboro, Ga., at 9-8 overall this season in true road games.
• After starting the season losing each of their first four road games (0-4), all of which came in the state of North Carolina, the Chanticleers have won eight of their last 12 road bouts, including wins at then-No. 20 Clemson (March 22), at then-No. 9 Texas State (March 26), and three games each at Arkansas State (April 1-3) and Appalachian State (April 14-16).
• The Chants had won six consecutive road games to start the month of April before falling last week at Charlotte (April 19) in midweek play.
• CCU got back on the winning track on the road on Tuesday night (April 26) with a 17-7 win at the College of Charleston.
  • The Chanticleers immediately turned heads in the Sun Belt Conference in their first season in the league in 2017, going 22-7-1 in conference play to win both the Sun Belt Conference East Division and Sun Belt Conference Regular-Season championships.
• Coastal went on to repeat in 2018 and added the Sun Belt Conference Tournament Championship title, posting a 23-7 regular-season conference record along the way.
• Despite slipping to 15-13 in conference play and finishing fifth in the regular-season standings in 2019, the Chanticleers ran through the Sun Belt Conference Tournament to repeat as tournament champions.
• After 2020 was canceled, the Chants had their worst conference season in over 25 years in 2021, finishing the conference regular-season slate at 9-12 overall.
• This year, CCU is 11-6-1 in Sun Belt Conference play which includes three Sun Belt Conference series sweeps over Arkansas State, Appalachian State, and UTA.
  • With the Sun Belt Conference regular-season schedule winding down, the Chanticleers will be looking to make a move up into the top half of the 2022 Sun Belt Conference regular-season standings with a strong showing this weekend at Georgia Southern (April 29-May 1).
• The Chants moved up from seventh to fourth overall after last week's three-game sweep at home over UTA (April 22-24), and are just 3.5 games behind the leader at 11-6-1 overall.
• The weekend series in Statesboro will be key in the regular-season standings, as the Eagles are in second, just one game behind league-leader Texas State, at 14-4 overall and just 2.5 games ahead of the Chanticleers.
• The Eagles can take over the top spot with a strong weekend, while the Chants can climb into the top three with a weekend series win.
• The top six teams in the regular season standings make the postseason conference tournament and avoid the single-elimination first-round games.
  • Coastal will play another ranked team this weekend in Georgia Southern, as the Eagles are ranked as high as No. 17 by Baseball America and are No. 24 in the D1Baseball, NCBWA, and Perfect Game. GS is also ranked No. 25 by the USA TODAY Coaches Poll.
• The Chanticleers are 4-5 in nine games versus top-30 nationally ranked teams with wins over then-No. 16 Central Michigan (Feb. 19), No. 30 Wake Forest (March 8), No. 20 Clemson (March 22), and No. 9 Texas State (March 26).
  • Coastal Carolina redshirt senior Reid VanScoter was named the Sun Belt Conference Baseball Pitcher of the Week on April 26.
• VanScoter had his best collegiate outing last Friday night versus UT Arlington (April 22) yet did not factor in the decision. The lefty went a career-long 8.0-complete innings and took a 2-1 lead into the ninth. He allowed just one run on three hits, zero walks, and struck out six batters. • He threw five 1-2-3 innings, including in the eighth inning, and allowed just one runner past second base over his eight innings on the mound.
• He held UTA to a .115 batting average but did not factor in the win as the Mavs took the lead in the ninth against the CCU bullpen before the Chants walked it off in the bottom of the ninth.
• The quality start was his sixth out of 10 starts this season, and he lowered his ERA to 2.56 on the year.
 
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