CONWAY, S.C. – The No. 7/8 Coastal Carolina baseball team will continue Sun Belt Conference play with a three-game weekend series versus the Appalachian State Mountaineers, May 5-7, 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.
  Friday, May 5
6 p.m. ET – APP STATE - RHP Xander Hamilton (7-2, 5.80 ERA) vs. CCU - RHP Jacob Morrison (6-0, 5.53 ERA)
 
Saturday, May 6
2 p.m. ET – APP STATE - RHP Bradley Wilson (2-3, 8.65 ERA) vs. CCU - LHP Liam Doyle (1-0, 5.27 ERA)
 
Sunday, May 7
1 p.m. ET – APP STATE - RHP Caleb Cross (4-2, 7.58 ERA) vs. CCU - TBA
  • Coastal Carolina is 28-15 overall and 15-6 in Sun Belt Conference play this year.
• Coastal sits alone atop the Sun Belt Conference regular-season standings at 15-6, one game in front of second place Southern Miss (14-7).
• CCU has won 14 of its last 22 games but is coming off a 7-3 midweek non-conference home loss to Charlotte (May 2) on Tuesday night after posting a 2-1 series win on the road at Louisiana (April 28-30) last weekend.
• This season, the Chanticleers are 17-8 at home inside Springs Brooks Stadium, including going 6-3 in Sun Belt Conference play at #ThePalace.
• As a team, the Chants are hitting .311 overall, which leads the Sun Belt and ranks 19th nationally, as seven different players are hitting over .300 on the season.
• The offense leads the Sun Belt in eight offensive statistical categories - runs (414), scoring (9.6), batting average (.311), on-base percentage (.420), slugging percentage (.547), doubles (106), doubles per game (2.47), and hit-by-pitch (97).
• CCU's pitching staff has struck out 466 batters compared to just 220 walks on the year and leads the Sun Belt with an average of 11.0 strikeouts per nine innings, which also ranks ninth nationally.
• Defensively, the Chants lead the SBC and rank eighth nationally with 42 double plays turned and are second in the league with a .972 fielding percentage overall.
  • The App State Mountaineers enter the weekend at 22-19 overall and 11-9 in Sun Belt Conference play.
• The Mountaineers, who are 10-7 in road games this season, have won each of their last two games and four of their last five games, all of which have come at home in Boone, N.C.
• App State's offense ranks in the middle of the pack in the Sun Belt this season, as the Mountaineers are hitting .282 with 42 home runs and are averaging 7.3 runs per game on the year.
• The pitching staff has posted a 7.97 ERA on the season, which is last in the Sun Belt, and has walked 263 batters on the year.
  • Coastal Carolina holds a 12-2 advantage over App State in the all-time series.
• The Chants are 10-2 versus the Mountaineers in conference regular-season play since Coastal joined the Sun Belt Conference prior to the 2017 season.
• Coastal is 7-1 at home versus the Mountaineers, including winning each of the first five games in the series history from 2002-17.
• CCU has won each of the last four meetings with the Mountaineers, which includes a three-game road sweep in Boone, N.C., last 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 six weeks.
• In the most recent polls that came out on May 1, the Chants were in all six polls - No. 7 (Perfect Game), No. 7 (Baseball America), No. 8 (D1Baseball), No. 8 (USA Today Coaches Pol), No. 8 (NCBWA), and No. 20 (Collegiate Baseball).
• The last time that the Chanticleers were ranked in the top 10 in the majority of the national polls prior to this season 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 14-7 overall.
  • The Chanticleers rank in the top 10 in RPI in games played through May 3, which is tops in the Sun Belt.
• Coastal has the ninth-best RPI according to Warren Nolan, NCAA, and Boyd's World.
  • This season, the Chanticleers have played one of the toughest schedules in all of NCAA Division I.
• In fact, Chants have the toughest schedule in all of NCAA Division I baseball to date, according to the NCAA.
  • The weekend three-game Sun Belt Conference series between Coastal Carolina and Appalachian State is important in regards to regular-season standings and postseason seeding in the upcoming 2023 Sun Belt Conference Baseball Championship Tournament on May 23-28 in Montgomery, Ala.
• The Chanticleers are 15-6 in conference play and first place in the regular-season conference standings, but just one game in front of Southern Miss (14-7) and two games ahead of Georgia Southern (13-8).
• The Mountaineers are 11-9 in conference play, 3.5 games back of the Chanticleers, and just 1.5 games out of third place overall.
  • 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 17-8 overall at home.
• Since Coastal joined the Sun Belt Conference in 2017, the Chants have posted a record of 138-65-2 (67.8 percent) at home at Springs Brooks Stadium.
  • Coastal has not been nice to its visiting Sun Belt Conference members in regular-season play at Spring Brooks Stadium since joining the league in 2017.
• CCU is 47-26-2 in Sun Belt regular-season games at home inside Springs Brooks Stadium (aka #ThePalace).
• Since joining the Sun Belt Conference in 2017, the Chants have won 16 of 25 conference series at home in Conway, S.C., which includes eight three-game sweeps.
• Oddly enough, the Chants have also tied two home series at 1-1-1 (Louisiana in 2017 and ULM in 2022) and thus have only lost seven home conference series as members of the Sun Belt.
 
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.