Coastal Carolina begins the meat of its baseball schedule this week with the start of Sun Belt Conference play, and coach Gary Gilmore believes his team's hosting of tournaments and teams over the first four weekends of the season sets it up for a successful conference run.
The Chanticleers travel to Arkansas State for a three-game series from Friday through Sunday. Game times are set for 7:30 p.m. (Eastern) Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday.
The Chants enter conference play at 12-7 on the season, having creeped into some national polls.
The 2016 national champions finished their first season in the Sun Belt last year with the best conference record in the regular season at 22-7-1 but did not receive an NCAA berth with a 37-19-1 record after losing in the first round of a conference tournament that was shortened to a single-elimination event because of weather.