CONWAY, S.C. – The Coastal Carolina baseball team received another top 25 preseason national ranking on Monday, Jan. 14, as the Chanticleers came in at No. 21 overall in the 2019 D1Baseball Preseason Top 25 poll.
The No. 21 national preseason ranking is the third preseason top 25 honor for the Chanticleers who were ranked No. 12 overall in Collegiate Baseball’s Fabulous 40 NCAA Division I preseason poll presented by Big League Chew bubble gum back in Dec. and No. 25 overall in the Perfect Game 2019 Preseason College Top 25 last week.
The lone Sun Belt team to be ranked in the top 25 by D1Baseball, the 2018 Sun Belt regular-season and tournament champions went 43-19 overall last season and reached the NCAA Regionals for the 16th time in the program’s history.
Vanderbilt, LSU, Texas Tech, Louisville and UCLA rank 1-5 in the D1Baseball preseason poll.
CCU is scheduled to play a total of four preseason nationally ranked opponents this season in No. 7 North Carolina, No. 8 Oregon State, No. 20 Wake Forest, and No. 24 Clemson.
In his 24th season in the Coastal Carolina dugout, 2018 Sun Belt Coach of the Year Gary Gilmore and his staff has 21 returners from last season’s team highlighted by sophomore Parker Chavers, who was named a consensus 2018 freshman All-American, second-team All-Sun Belt, Sun Belt all-tournament and earned a spot on the NCAA Conway Regional all-tournament team, as well as 2018 All-Americans Zach Biermann and Cory Wood.
The Chants had a trio of returners in Wood, Biermann, and Matt Eardensohn named to the 2019 Collegiate Baseball Preseason All-America teams, powered by Diamond Sports, as Wood was named to the second team, while both Biermann and Eardensohn earned spots on the third team.
The Chanticleers open up the 2019 season with the Brittain Resorts Invitational from Feb. 15-17 at Springs Brooks Stadium in Conway, S.C. The opening-weekend tournament will consist of host CCU, Maryland, VCU, and Campbell.
The 2019 baseball schedule includes three home tournaments, five Sun Belt Conference home weekend series and a total of 29 home games at Springs Brooks Stadium this season.