Road Trip Begins at No. 13 Ole Miss Wednesday

Wednesday, March 2

Oxford, Miss.

3:00 PM

University of Memphis

Ole Miss

Photo by: Michael Gardner

Mar 01, 2016 | Baseball

Memphis embarks on a six-game road trip, spanning eight days

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – When the Memphis baseball team departs for Oxford, Miss. to play at No. 13 Ole Miss on Wednesday, the Tigers will remain on the road for eight consecutive days. During that eight-day stretch away from home Memphis will play six games, including a weekend series at Georgia Southern and two midweek games against Middle Tennessee.

Freshman James Muse is scheduled to make his first career start on the mound. He made his Tiger debut in relief against SIU Edwardsville. Muse will face a fellow freshman starting pitcher, James McArthur, who made his first career start last week against Arkansas State.

GAME INFORMATION:
Memphis (4-2) at #13 Ole Miss (6-1)
Date: March 2, 2016
Location: Oxford, Miss.
Venue: Swayze Field
Twitter Updates: @MemphisBaseball

Wednesday, March 2 | 3 p.m. CT
Radio: WUMR 91.7 FM
Web: SEC Network + | Live Stats: GameTracker
MEM: Fr. RHP James Muse (0-0, 0.00 ERA)
Ole Miss: Fr. RHP James McArthur (0-0, 6.75 ERA)

Leading Off
• Memphis embarks on its longest road trip of the season, beginning with the game at Ole Miss on Wednesday and ending with a neutral site contest with Middle Tennessee in Jackson next Wednesday, March 9.
• The Tigers are hoping to play their first midweek game of the year, after having both of their first two scheduled midweeks postponed due to weather.
• Memphis and Ole Miss split a pair of games last season with each team winning on the road. The Tigers have won seven of the last 12 meetings dating back to 2010.
• The Tigers enter the week after a sweep of SIU Edwardsville. Memphis got outstanding starting pitching efforts, with three quality starts by Colton Hathcock, Connor Alexander and Matt Ferguson. The offense was aggressive all weekend with eight doubles, two triples and 13 stolen bases.
• For the second consecutive season, Memphis opened the season on the road and went 1-2. The Tigers opened the year at home the previous five seasons (2010-14).
• The Tigers' junior center fielder and lead-off batter, Darien Tubbs, entered the season as the American Athletic Conference Preseason Player of the Year, as voted on by the league's head coaches.
• Memphis junior closer Nolan Blackwood was named a Louisville Slugger Preseason second team All-American after he recorded a school-record 14 saves in 2015.
• The duo of Darien Tubbs and Nolan Blackwood are Memphis' only representatives on the American Preseason All-Conference team.
• Memphis was picked to finish seventh in the American Athletic Conference by the league's head coaches.
• The Tigers feature an abundance of youth on the mound with seven freshman pitchers in addition to four sophomores.
• Memphis returned five position starters from last season and eight of the nine Opening Day starters had Division I Baseball experience.
• The Tigers will be road-tested early with nine of the first 12 games away from home.
• For the 16th consecutive season Memphis will play select games at AutoZone Park, the home of the St. Louis Cardinals AAA-Affiliate Memphis Redbirds. This year's schedule features two games – against Ole Miss on March 30 and versus Arkansas on April 6.
• The Memphis baseball program is in the fourth season as a partner with Baden Sports and swings the Axe Bat exclusively.

The Series with Ole Miss
Memphis will begin its eight-day road swing with a trip to Oxford, Miss. to face Ole Miss for the first of two scheduled match ups with the Rebels. The two teams have faced each other each season since 1989 and Ole Miss currently leads the series 54-37. The Tigers were 1-1 against Ole Miss last season, winning 10-5 in Oxford but dropping the game at AutoZone Park, 7-5. Memphis has won seven of the last 12 match ups dating back to 2012, including four straight from 2012-14.

Scouting the Rebels
Ole Miss opened the season by winning its first five games, a series sweep of Florida International, a midweek win over Arkansas State and the series opener against Louisville. The Rebels went on to win the series over then second ranked Louisville to improve to 6-1. Sophomore infielder Tate Blackman is the leading hitter with a .524 average, eight runs scored and seven RBI. Junior closer Wyatt Short has already recorded three saves through seven games.

Recent History with the SEC
Despite going 1-2 during the opening weekend against Tennessee, Memphis still owns a 14-10 record against teams from the nation's toughest conference, the SEC, since the 2012 season. Last year the Tigers beat Arkansas, Ole Miss and Mississippi State to finish with a 3-2 record against the SEC. The team Memphis has had the most success against in recent years is Ole Miss, with five wins over the Rebels dating back to 2012. Memphis swept Missouri in a three-game series at FedExPark in 2013, the school's first season in the SEC. Memphis also took two-of-three from Mizzou in 2012 while they were still a member of the Big 12.

Aggression Pays Off in Sweep
Memphis was able to run wild in the series sweep of SIU Edwardsville, with 13 stolen bases on 14 attempts throughout the weekend. Seven different Tigers recorded a stolen base in the series, while four swiped multiple bags. The Tigers also smashed a total of 13 extra-base hits, with eight doubles, two triples and three home runs during the series. The majority of the Memphis lineup displayed the balance of speed and power as six different players had both a stolen base and an extra-base hit over the three games. The outfield pair of Chris Carrier and Darien Tubbs both had big numbers during the weekend. Carrier had three doubles and four stolen bases, while Tubbs had a double, a triple, a homer and three stolen bases.

Road Tested Early
Memphis will play 9 of its first 12 games on the road, including four of the Tigers' seven scheduled match-ups with SEC teams. The tough schedule away from home early in the season could benefit the team later as they will play three of the top four teams in the American Athletic Conference on the road. Memphis plays at USF in early April before traveling to Houston and Tulane in back-to-back weekends in May.

Well Traveled
This season's schedule will see Memphis play games in 10 different states – Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Ohio, Texas and of course Tennessee. The team will rack up nearly 8,000 miles trekking across the country during the regular season. During the third week of the season Memphis will stay out on the road for an eight-day stretch for games at Ole Miss, Georgia Southern and Middle Tennessee over spring break. That trip alone will cover 1,271 miles. The team will make two flights during the regular season, to USF and Houston, and will travel by bus for the rest of the games. Following the conclusion of the regular season Memphis will fly back to Florida for the American Athletic Conference Championship that runs May 24-29 at Bright House Field in Clearwater.

Preseason Player of the Year
Following a breakout season as a sophomore in 2015, Darien Tubbs was named as the American Athletic Conference Preseason Player of the Year. The Cookville, Tenn. native, started all 58 games in center field and in the lead off spot in the batting order in 2015. He was named to the all-conference second team after leading the Tigers with a .321 batting average, 75 hits, 57 runs scored and 24 stolen bases. Tubbs had three separate double-digit hitting streaks during the season, including a season-best 14-game hitting streak from March 9 to March 28. Tubbs reached base in 31 straight contests during the year and managed to get on base in each of the first 53 games of the season, only failing to reach safely in the second game of the series against ECU. He finished the year by reaching in 56 of the 58 games.

Preseason All-American
Nolan Blackwood set the program record for saves in a single season with 14 last year and finished with a microscopic 0.52 earned run average. He was named an NCBWA second-team All-American, becoming only the second Memphis pitcher to earn All-America honors. The Southaven, Miss. product, allowed only two runs during the season and opponents batted just .225 against him. He didn't allow a run in his first 13 appearances of the season. As a freshman he set the program record for single-season appearances with 31 and recorded his first three career saves. The junior recorded his first save of 2016, against SIUE, and is now tied with Matt Yokley (2006-09) for second all-time in school history with 18 career saves. Blackwood only sits behind Jonathan Van Eaton's 21 saves from 2010-13.