CONWAY, S.C. – The No. 8 nationally-ranked Coastal Carolina Chanticleers will wrap up the 2023 regular-season slate this week with a three-game Sun Belt Conference series matchup with the Marshall Thundering Herd on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, May 18-20, at Springs Brooks Stadium.
 
All three games will be streamed live on ESPN+, with fans able to listen to the games in the Conway/Myrtle Beach area on WRNN Hot Talk 99.5 FM.
  Thursday, May 18
6 p.m. ET – MAR - RHP Patrick Copen (2-8, 5.81 ERA) vs. CCU - LHP Liam Doyle (1-0, 5.14 ERA)
 
Friday, May 19
6 p.m. ET – MAR - LHP Raymond Pacella (0-7, 5.40 ERA) vs. CCU - RHP Riley Eikhoff (0-1, 6.30 ERA)
 
Saturday, May 20
1 p.m. ET – MAR - RHP Zac Addkison (3-7, 4.21 ERA) vs. CCU - TBA
  • Coastal Carolina is 34-17 overall and 20-7 in Sun Belt Conference play this year.
• The Chanticleers enter the three-game conference series with the Marshall Thundering Herd having won four consecutive games, including an 8-6 home win over North Carolina in midweek action on Tuesday night, May 16.
• CCU has won seven of its last 10 games and six of its last 10 home games.
• This season, the Chanticleers are 20-10 overall at home but just 8-4 in Sun Belt Conference play.
• As a team, the Chants are hitting .308 overall, which leads the Sun Belt and ranks 22nd nationally, as seven players are hitting over .300 on the season.
• The offense leads the Sun Belt in seven offensive statistical categories - batting average (.308), doubles (120), on-base percentage (.419), runs (483), scoring (9.5), sacrifice flies (33), and slugging percentage (.539).
• CCU's pitching staff has struck out 548 batters compared to just 268 walks on the year and leads the Sun Belt with an average of 10.8 strikeouts per nine innings, which ranks eighth nationally.
• Defensively, the Chants lead the SBC and rank third nationally with 54 double plays turned and are fifth in the league with a .969 fielding percentage overall.
  • The Marshall Thundering Herd enter the final week of the regular season at 16-34 overall and 5-22 in Sun Belt Conference play in their first year in the league.
• The Herd have lost 12 straight games and are just 7-14 on the road this year.
• Marshall's offense is hitting just .258 on the season with 446 hits, 41 home runs, and 252 runs scored, which all rank in the lower third of the conference.
• The pitching staff has posted an ERA of 6.29 on the season and is near the top of the Sun Belt Conference in the fewest hits allowed per nine innings at 9.36.
• The Marshall pitchers have struck out 453 hitters compared to just 258 walks on the season, while their opponents have posted a .269 average at the plate.
  • The Chanticleers are 6-2 all-time versus Marshall, with all eight meetings coming in Conway/Myrtle Beach, S.C.
• The two teams will be meeting for the first time as conference foes, as Marshall joined the Sun Belt Conference in July 2022.
• Coastal has won each of the last four meetings between the two teams, with the last matchup coming back in 2016.
  • Coastal will hold its Senior Day recognition prior to the game on Saturday, May 20.
• The Coastal Carolina baseball program will recognize Payton Eeles, Tanner Garrison, Davis Tyndall, Jack Billings, John Kelly, Kameron Guangorena, Will Smith, Zack Beach, Graham Brown, and Colin Yablonski before the game with Marshall. *
*Some seniors were recognized last year.
  • First place in the Sun Belt Conference regular-season standings is on the line for the Chanticleers this week in the three-game conference series with the Marshall Thundering Herd.
• Coastal enters the series tied with Southern Miss atop the Sun Belt Conference standings at 20-7.
• The Chanticleers hold the tiebreaker over the Golden Eagles, having won two of three games versus Southern Miss back on April 21-23.
  • Coastal's offense has been prolific this season, and it is no more telling than in the RBI category, where the Chants have driven in 447 RBIs on the year.
• CCU's 447 RBIs are more than Marshall's offense has hits on the season, as the Thundering Herd enter the week with just 446 hits on the year.
  • For the first time this season, the Chanticleers were ranked in a national top-25 poll on March 27.
• Coastal came in at No. 19 in the D1Baseball Top 25 Rankings and at No. 28 in the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) NCAA Division I poll in that poll on March 27.
• Since then, the Chants have been in at least one national poll in each of the last seven weeks.
• In the most recent polls that came out on May 15, the Chants were in all six polls - No. 8 (Perfect Game), No. 8 (Baseball America), No. 8 (D1Baseball), No. 8 (USA Today Coaches Pol), No. 8 (NCBWA), and No. 13 (Collegiate Baseball).
• Prior to this season, the last time that the Chanticleers were ranked in the top 10 in the majority of the national polls was back in 2010, when they broke into the top 10 in three of the five polls on April 19, 2010.
• Since being ranked, the Chanticleers have gone 20-9 overall.
  • 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).
  • This season, Coastal was 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.
• 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 20-10 overall at home.
• Since Coastal joined the Sun Belt Conference in 2017, the Chants have posted a record of 141-66-2 (67.9 percent) at home at Springs Brooks Stadium.
  • Coastal Carolina has played three of the four new members of the Sun Belt Conference that joined the league in July 2022 in James Madison, Old Dominion, and Southern Miss.
• Coastal is 6-3 this season against the new conference members, having taken two of three games on the road at both James Madison (March 17-19) and Old Dominion (April 14-16), and also defeating Southern Miss (April 21-23) in two of three games at home.
• The Chanticleers will play the fourth new conference foe Marshall (May 18-20) at home this week.

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.