2018 Sun Belt Baseball Weekly News and Notes:
Standings | Composite Schedule | Stats | Championship Information | Weekly Release
#FUNBELT FACTS
Championship Format: Continuing with the 2018 season, the Sun Belt Conference will conduct its baseball regular season with divisional play. Two divisions will be comprised of six teams each, and divisional champions will be awarded at the end of the year based on the winning percentage against all teams, regardless of division. The 2018 Sun Belt Conference Baseball Championship will be seeded with the division winners as the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds, with the No. 1 seed being awarded to the divisional winner with the best conference winning percentage. The number of teams playing in the conference championship will increase from eight to 10. This would cause two additional games to be played. The first round games will include the No. 8 seed vs. No. 9 seed and the No. 7 seed vs. the No. 10 seed, with both contests conducted as single-elimination games on Tuesday of tournament week. The conference tournament is set for May 22-27 at M.L. “Tigue” Moore Field at Russo Park on the campus of Louisiana.
Senior Class Award: Three Sun Belt baseball student-athletes were selected for the 2018 Senior CLASS Award. Appalachian State's Tristan Helms, Justin Garcia of Little Rock and Louisiana's Dylan Moore were three of the 30 candidates selected. An acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School®, the Senior CLASS Award focuses on the total student-athlete and encourages students to use their platform in athletics to make a positive impact as leaders in their communities.
Moving up the Ranks: After posting a 4-0 record last week, Coastal Carolina has been ranked by all the major ranking services. The Chants are 19-7 overall and are 6-0 in Sun Belt play.
Six in Top 100 of RPI: Six Sun Belt baseball teams are ranked in the top 100 of the latest NCAA RPI rankings. Three of which are ranked in the top 40. Coastal Carolina checks in at the highest at No. 19 while Troy and South Alabama are Nos. 34 and 37, respectively. All 12 of the Sun Belt's teams are ranked inside of 200 and 11 of the 12 are inside of 150.
Coastal Carolina's Gilmore Wins No. 900: Coastal Carolina coach Gary Gilmore earned win No. 900 of his career with a 9-5 win over No. 14 Clemson on March 20. Gilmore is in his 23rd season leading the Chanticleers, and all 900+ of his victories have been as CCU's head skipper. Gilmore is 9th among active NCAA D1 head coaches.
Red Wolves Record: Arkansas State set a new program record for runs scored in a single game when A-State tallied 31 runs in a rout of ULM, 31-7. The 31 runs broke the previous team record of 28 set during the 1992 season in a win over Memphis. A-State also tied the school record for hits (26) and home runs (8) in the game. The 29 RBI was also a new team record.
Texas State's Harrington Wins No. 600: Texas State coach Ty Harrington earned win No. 600 of his illustrious career with a 6-5 triumph at UC Santa Barbara March 11. Coach Harrington is in his 19th season leading the Bobcats, and all 600+ of his victories have been as TXST’s head skipper.
Free Baseball?: Sun Belt teams are a combined 14-7 in 21 extra inning games this season. The highlight of those games was UTA's victory over No. 6 Texas A&M on March 13. The Mavericks claimed a 5-1 victory in the longest game in UTA history.
On the Road Again: Appalachian State opened the 2018 season with seven straight road games before welcoming Marshall to Boone for the first home series. The Mountaineers will play 14 of their first 17 games on the road, but the first 11 road games were in-state matchups. The Mountaineers are scheduled to play 40 of their 56 regular-season games in the state of North Carolina.
Johnny Bench Award Watch List: Four Sun Belt catchers are on the Johnny Bench Award Watch List which was released March 7. The semifinalist will be announced on May 16 and the finalists will be announced on June 4. The winner will be selected on June 28.
Kale Emshoff, Little Rock
Justin Felix, Arkansas State
Nick Gatewood, Georgia State
Chase Smartt, Troy
Wacky Walk-Offs: With Arkansas State’s 9-8 walk-off win over Southern Illinois, the team now has 28 walk-off victories since Tommy Raffo became head coach in 2009. 15 of those walk-offs have now been singles after Drew Tipton’s hit March 13 versus the Salukis. Before that the last was when Justin Felix knocked in the winning run of A-State’s 9-8 win over Little Rock in 18 innings May 19, 2017.
Leading the Offensive Charge: The Chanticleers lead the Sun Belt in nine offensive categories and rank in the top 10 in seven of those nine. The other two categories (batting average and home runs) the Chants rank in the top 20. CCU ranks fourth in the country in runs scored per game (9.0) and third in runs scored (233). Contributing to that number is the teams' doubles total which is 69 through 26 games, ranking them third in that category.
Reached Base Streak: Coastal Carolina's Seth Lancaster has reached base in all 26 games played this season for the Chanticleers. Dating back to last season, Lancaster has reached in 31 consecutive. Over his last 11, he has a hit in 10 and batting .318 (14-for-44) with 15 runs, eight RBI and 12 base on balls.
They Walked the Line: Arkansas State and Coastal Carolina played a strange game in Jonesboro on Saturday, March 17. The contest featured 32 hits and 30 walks, with the 30 walks tying for the second most in NCAA Division I history, as well as a combined 40 runs. CCU prevailed 26-14 over the Red Wolves. A-State issued 18 walks which broke the school record of 16, set three different times, and Coastal Carolina’s 12 walks tied its school record.
Lancaster Leads the NCAA: CCU's Lancaster leads the NCAA in runs scored with 37 through 26 games played. He is one of four Sun Belt players ranked in the top 30 and is one of two from CCU. Kevin Woodall is tied for 27th with 27 runs scored.
COMMUNITY COFFEE PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Lee Sponseller
Coastal Carolina | Senior | OF
Lee Sponseller hit two grand slams, one of which was a walk-off against No. 04 Clemson, and drove in 10 RBI in a 4-0 week for the Chanticleers. With game tied 2-2 and two outs in the 5th, hit a grand slam to put CCU up 6-2 and CCU pulled away for 11-3 win over Texas State in Friday's opener. He had a hit in all four games last week and scored at least one run in all. Sponseller is riding a 10-game hit streak with 12 runs, 12 RBI and 12 walks over that span.
COMMUNITY COFFEE PITCHER OF THE WEEK
Hunter Gaddis
Georgia State | Sophomore | RHP
Georgia State Friday starter Hunter Gaddis earned his Sun Belt-leading fifth victory with his second complete game of the season in a 7-2 victory over South Alabama. Gaddis allowed just four hits while striking out eight. He blanked South Alabama on just two hits for seven innings before the Jaguars managed two runs in the eighth, aided by a fly ball that was lost in the lights, resulting in a double. Gaddis leads the Sun Belt with a 5-1 record and has a 1.69 ERA.
COMMUNITY COFFEE PLAYER/PITCHER OF THE WEEK ARCHIVE
Feb. 20: Matt Sanders, Troy (player); Connor Reich, Texas State (pitcher)
Feb. 28: Braedon Barrett, ULM (player); Anthony Simonelli, Coastal Carolina (pitcher)
Mar. 6: Joey Denison, Troy (player); Jack Burk, Louisiana (pitcher)
Mar. 14: Zach Biermann, Coastal Carolina (player); Hunter Gaddis, Georgia State (pitcher)
Mar. 20: Will Olson, UTA (player); Justin Garcia, Little Rock (pitcher)
Mar. 27: Lee Sponseller, Coastal Carolina (player); Hunter Gaddis, Georgia State (pitcher)
UPCOMING SCHEDULE
March 27 (Tuesday)
Kennesaw State at Georgia State 5:00 PM
Appalachian State at Gardner-Webb 5:00 PM
Arkansas State at Southern Illinois 5:00 PM
Coastal Carolina at College of Charleston 5:00 PM
Georgia Southern at Georgia Tech 5:00 PM (ESPN3)
Oral Roberts at Little Rock 6:00 PM
Jackson State at ULM 6:00 PM
Texas at Texas State 6:00 PM
Alabama State at Troy 6:00 PM (ESPN3)
New Orleans at South Alabama 6:30 PM
Sam Houston State at UTA 6:30 PM
(8) Louisiana vs. LSU 7:00 PM (CST)
March 29 (Thursday)
Coastal Carolina at Georgia Southern * 5:30 PM
Little Rock at Texas State * 6:00 PM
Georgia State at Troy * 6:00 PM (ESPN3)
Louisiana at Arkansas State * 6:30 PM (ESPN3)
Appalachian State at South Alabama * 6:30 PM
ULM at UTA * 6:30 PM
March 30 (Friday)
Coastal Carolina at Georgia Southern * 5:30 PM
Little Rock at Texas State * 6:00 PM
Georgia State at Troy * 6:00 PM (ESPN3)
Louisiana at Arkansas State * 6:30 PM (ESPN3)
Appalachian State at South Alabama * 6:30 PM
ULM at UTA * 6:30 PM
March 31 (Saturday)
Coastal Carolina at Georgia Southern * 12:00 PM
Louisiana at Arkansas State * 1:00 PM (ESPN3)
Appalachian State at South Alabama * 1:00 PM
Little Rock at Texas State * 1:00 PM
Georgia State at Troy * 1:00 PM (ESPN3)
ULM at UTA * 2:00 PM
* - Sun Belt Conference game