CONWAY, S.C. – The No. 8 Coastal Carolina Chanticleers will open up its final home stand of the 2023 regular season on Tuesday night versus North Carolina at 6 p.m. ET at Springs Brooks Stadium.
 
The game will be carried live on ESPN+ and WRNN Hot Talk 99.5 FM.
  Tuesday, May 16
6 p.m. ET – UNC - RHP Connor Bovair (4-2, 4.77 ERA) vs. CCU - LHP Bryce Shaffer (4-1, 6.86 ERA)
  • Coastal designated hitter Derek Bender was one of nine NCAA DI baseball student-athletes named a Collegiate Baseball National Player of the Week powered by Diamond Sports for his play from May 8-14.
• Bender continued his stellar season by hitting .429 (9-for-21) with three home runs, eight RBIs, six runs scored, and a .857 slugging percentage over four games for the Chants last week.
• The sophomore hit safely in each of the four games and drove in at least one RBI in all four games. He hit one home run in three of the four games and tallied three multi-hit games, including a pair of three-hit games in the sweep at South Alabama.
• In the three-game sweep of the Jaguars, Bender hit .500 with three multi-hit games and two multi-RBI games while hitting safely in all three wins.
• The honor marked the third for the Chanticleers this season from Collegiate Baseball, as Graham Brown (April 10) and Teddy Sharkey (April 17) both earned national recognition earlier this season.
  • This season, the Chanticleers have played one of the toughest schedules in all of NCAA Division I.
• In fact, Chants have the third-toughest schedule in all of NCAA Division I baseball to date, according to the NCAA, behind only Florida State (ACC) and Kentucky (SEC).
  • There is a lot on the line in the final midweek matchup of the season for the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers and the North Carolina Tar Heels regarding the NCAA Baseball Championship Tournament.
• Coastal enters the week at No. 10 in the RPI rankings (NCAA), having gone 33-17 overall with a record of 8-7 versus top-50 RPI teams and a 12-8 record versus the 51-100 ranked opponents.
• North Carolina enters the midweek road contest at No. 24 in the RPI rankings, with a 33-17 overall record and a record of 12-15 overall versus top-50 RPI teams on the season.
  • This season, the Chanticleers have fared well against teams from the Tar Heel State.
• The Chanticleers are 9-5 overall versus schools from the state of North Carolina, including four wins over nationally-ranked foes.
• CCU defeated Davidson (March 3-5) in three games, Wake Forest (March 7), Campbell (March 14), North Carolina (March 28), and Campbell (April 11) again, and most recently took two of three games in a conference weekend series versus Appalachian State (May 5-7).
  • This season, the Chanticleers are 13-10 overall in non-conference play.
• The Chants have two midweek wins over ranked foes Campbell (March 14 and April 11), and one each over ranked opponents Wake Forest (March 7) and North Carolina (March 28), as well as a three-game series sweep over Davidson (March 3-5) and a series win over Creighton (Feb. 24-26).
• CCU and Illinois (March 10 & 11) also split a series 1-1, which saw the rubber match washed out.
  • This season, the Chants are 5-7 this season in midweek action and 3-2 in those games played at home.
• The Chants have defeated multiple ranked teams No. 2/5 Wake Forest (March 7), No. 19 Campbell (March 14), at No. 13 North Carolina (March 28), and at No. 14 Campbell (April 11) in midweek play.
  • Coastal is 2-4 versus the ACC this season with a 16-4 loss to NC State (Feb. 22), a 13-11 win over Wake Forest (March 7), a 12-7 victory at North Carolina (March 28), back-to-back road losses at Clemson (April 4) and Wake Forest (April 25), and then a midweek home loss to the No. 10/16 Tigers (May 12-14).
  • This season, the Chanticleers have lost two games to the same team just once.
• The lone team to beat the Chanticleers twice this season has been the Clemson Tigers, with a home win over CCU on April 4 and a road victory in Conway, S.C., on May 10.
• Overall, CCU's 17 losses have come to 16 different teams, with one loss each to VCU (Feb. 19), No. 21 NC State (Feb. 22), Creighton (Feb. 26), College of Charleston (Feb. 28), Illinois (March 11), James Madison (March 18), Texas State (March 25), Clemson (April 4), Georgia Southern (April 7), No. 14 Campbell (April 10), Old Dominion (April 14), No. 23/24 Southern Miss (April 23), No. 2 Wake Forest (April 25), Louisiana (April 28), Charlotte (May 2), and Appalachian State (May 5), and the two defeats to Clemson.
  • With the Chanticleers' 8-7 win in 10 innings last Friday (May 12) at South Alabama, Coastal improved to a perfect 5-0 on the season in extra-inning games.
• Oddly enough, all five extra-inning wins for the Chanticleers this year have come in Sun Belt Conference play, with four of the coming on the road - at Georgia State (April 2), at Old Dominion (April 16), at Louisiana (April 30), versus Appalachian State (May 6), and at South Alabama.
• Coastal has outscored its opponents 7-0 in extra innings this season.
  • This season, Coastal is scheduled to play 34 home games versus teams from the Atlantic Coast Conference, Big Ten, Big East, Conference USA, Atlantic 10, and the new look Sun Belt Conference.
• In fact, 14 of the Chants' first 15 games came at home at "The Palace" to start the season.
• Since 2000, the Chants have recorded 20 wins or more at home in all but four years, one of which was the shortened 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• This season, the Chants are 19-10 overall at home.
• Since Coastal joined the Sun Belt Conference in 2017, the Chants have posted a record of 140-66-2 (67.8 percent) at home at Springs Brooks Stadium.
 
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.