With the UNC Wilmington baseball team facing its rival down the coast this week, The Seahawk looks back at the rivalry between the Seahawks and the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers.

UNCW and Coastal Carolina started its rivalry in 1975 and continued with a home-and-home series each year through 1978. The rivalry has been built on location, with each program battling to be the best “coastal” school in the Carolinas.

The two schools are not in the same conference and have never met in postseason play or on a neutral field, so the series is built on midweek, regular-season battles.

UNCW has a 20-25 record at home and a 14-34 record on the road in Conway, S.C. The series currently stands 59-34 in favor of the Chanticleers and has been dominated by streaky play.

The Seahawks took flight early, winning the first three games of the rivalry. However, this would be only one of three winning streaks of three games or more the Seahawks would put together in the next four decades.

On the other hand, Coastal has put together seven such streaks, two of which topped out at seven consecutive wins. During their national championship season in 2016, Coastal Carolina won at UNCW in their lone matchup by a score of 6-4.

The Chants are currently on a six-game winning streak, dating back to the beginning of the 2015 season.

The best stretch for UNCW came from May 1995 to April 1998. The Seahawks compiled a 10-2 record and outscored the Chants by 20 runs in that time. Two of the rivalry’s three extra-innings games were also played in this stretch, where UNCW won both by scores of 6-5 in 12 and 11 innings, respectively.

The most competitive stretch of the series was during the 1986-89 seasons. The two teams played nine times in that span, with UNCW winning five of nine games. After a season sweep of the home-and-home series in 1986, the two teams alternated victories through the 1989 season.

The UNCW vs Coastal Carolina series is the seventh-most played series by the Seahawks at 93 total games. The schools will play their usual home-and-home series again this year, with the Seahawks visiting Conway on Wednesday.

The Chanticleers will visit UNCW later in the season on April 16.