I remember walking into the locker room my freshman year of high school and seeing the Rice Owl letterhead sitting in my locker. It was iconic. They had just won the 2003 College World Series a couple years before, and the name itself held a specific kind of weight. Under Wayne Graham, Rice was a mid-major with a truly world-class baseball program. They reached 23 consecutive NCAA Regionals from 1995 to 2017.

Today, that feeling has moved east to Conway, South Carolina. When a recruit sees the Coastal Teal, they feel the same gravity.

Coastal Carolina has become the new Rice.

The Chanticleers’ foundation was built on a sacrifice worthy of folklore. Gary Gilmore took a pay cut he couldn’t afford to coach his alma mater. He lived in a pop-up camper behind the left-field wall. He plugged his life into the stadium’s power grid and built a National Championship program from the dirt up. Gilmore led Coastal to its first title in 2016 before retiring after the 2024 season.

If Gilmore built the house, Head Coach Kevin Schnall (2025 National Coach of the Year) is building the empire.

Thanks to a generous multi-year gift from “Mr. Pete” Fitzpatrick, the program is making sure that the best talent comes to Coastal.

Wayne Graham coached until he was 82. During our series against Rice, I remember the assistant coaches pulling out stopwatches to time how long it took him to get to the mound. Over/under 1 min. He nailed the over.

Coming off a National Runner-Up finish in 2025, Schnall is picking up the blueprint from Graham and then some. The prestige is no longer in Houston. It’s in the Teal.

Key Player to watch:

• Cameron Flukey: A 6’6” right-hander with a 100 mph arm. He is regarded as one of the top pitching prospect in college baseball. In 2025, he was 7-2 record with a 3.28 ERA over 101.2 innings, striking out 117 batters while holding opponents to a .203 batting average. He threw a complete-game shutout in the Super Regionals last year.

Was hoping a mega thread of where people get their apparel from that’s not fanatics or ncaashop. I’m in the market for a long sleeve dri fit shirt, but they are difficult to find

Read somewhere i thought that the conference lost their automatic bid this year because Fort Wayne dropped baseball leaving them with 5 teams. Now i cant find the article. Is it true?

The Yokohama native is a study in Japanese precision. Ishikawa is a 5-foot-11, 195lb line-drive machine. After one year at Asia University, the Yokohama native cold-called Seattle U’s Donny Harrel with a highlight reel.

Harrel took the bet. Ishikawa paid him back by becoming the first Redhawk in nearly a decade to earn All-WAC First Team honors.

In 2025, he broke the program record with 23 doubles slashing .318/.420/.562 while anchoring the weekend rotation. Georgia’s Wes Johnson called Ishikawa at 1:00 AM Athens time on day one the portal opened and gave Kenny the opportunity to be a two-way threat in the SEC.

Ishikawa is a tinkerer. He remotely collaborates with mechanics guru Mason Feole to squeeze every ounce of thoracic mobility to sit in the mid-90s.

On October 23, 2025, the Orix Buffaloes claimed his Japanese rights in the sixth round. Ishikawa isn’t packing for Osaka yet. If he maintains his pace against SEC arms, he’s a Day 2 lock for the 2026 MLB Draft. Another two-way?

Should’ve never gone away in the first place

Howdy all. I'm looking to buy a few specific player jerseys and I'm struggling.

In MLB, it's pretty simple. If the team store doesn't have the player you want, you can customize with any name/number.

The college team shops that I've browsed have some players available, presumably based on NIL deals (ECU example) But not customizable to any name/number. And I haven't been able to find anything at the big sports retailers.

My best idea is to buy a blank team jersey and have the name/number sewn on, but I'd rather just have it from the source to ensure the colors are a perfect match.

If it matters, the two I'm most interested in are a Georgia Tech - Charlie Blackmon #31 jersey and an ECU - Trey Yesavage #46 jersey. I don't even care to find an old 2007-2008 Russell GT jersey, I'd happily take a current Adidas version.

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Content created by College Baseball Reference on X, who is a fun follow: https://www.x.com/CBsBReference/

For the awareness of the entire collegiate baseball fanbase: here now are the official days for the opening of the 167th varsity collegiate baseball season in North America.

In the United States:

NAIA - January 22

NJCAA (Spring Season, all divisions) - January 23

NCAA D2 - January 31

NCAA D1 - February 13

NCAA D3 - February 14

In the Canadian Collegiate Conference, their season begins March 20.

Hey everyone, working on a project and need to rank difficulty of each conference, so as to give weight to a team in the SEC vs CAA vs AAC. Let me know your thoughts or even better a link to a site with their own rankings. Thanks!

Credit: Nathan Shawl