News digest, Feb. 5, Part 2

Chants picked fourth

Sun Belt Conference coaches pick Coastal Carolina to finish fourth in the league this season, behind tightly bunched Southern Miss, Troy and Louisiana.

Catcher Caden Bodine of the Chanticleers is the coaches' choice as preseason player of the year.  He's joined on the preseason all-conference team by second baseman Blake Barthol.

Sun Belt

Place	School	1sts	Total points
1	Southern Miss	5	179
2	Troy	4	178
3	Louisiana	3	174
4	Coastal Carolina	2	161
5	Georgia Southern		125
6	James Madison		106
7	Old Dominion		105
8	Texas State		102
9	Appalachian State		94
10	South Alabama		93
11	Georgia State		49
12	Marshall		46
13	ULM		34
14	Arkansas State		24

Mainieri sets part of USC rotation

In an appearance on the Inside the Gamecocks show on Wednesday, first-year South Carolina coach Paul Mainieri said Dylan Eskew and Matthew Becker would be the starting pitchers for the first two games of the season-opening Sacred Heart series Feb.14-16.