Midweek Series with Middle Tennessee Starts Tuesday

Tuesday, March 8

Murfreesboro, Tenn.

6:00 PM

University of Memphis

Middle Tennessee

Photo by: Michael Gardner

Midweek Series with Middle Tennessee Starts Tuesday

Mar 07, 2016 | Baseball

Memphis and MTSU to play Wednesday at Ballpark at Jackson

Memphis and Middle Tennessee will tee up a two-game midweek series starting Tuesday in Murfreesboro, Tenn., and ending Wednesday at the Ballpark at Jackson, home of the Jackson Generals, the Double-A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners. Both game are scheduled to start at 6 p.m. at the respective ballparks.

The two games will be the final leg of an eight-day road trip that started for Memphis with a game at Ole Miss last Wednesday, March 2 and took them to Georgia Southern for a weekend series. Memphis was able to snap a three-game losing streak with a 6-4 win in the series finale with Georgia Southern.

The Tigers and Blue Raiders first met in 1983 and have played every season since 1986. Memphis currently leads the all-time series record 45-44, and the Tigers pulled out two wins over MTSU at FedExPark last season.

Memphis won the first match up last season in a narrow, 3-1, game with Connor Alexander tossing five scoreless innings of relief to get the win. The next day the Tigers exploded for 11 runs on 14 hits and shut out the Blue Raiders, 11-0.

Middle Tennessee is 6-5 after winning two-of-three over South Alabama on the road last weekend. The Blue Raiders took the series with a 12th-inning win in the series finale Sunday.

MTSU is led offensively by shortstop Riley Delgado. The junior leadoff man is batting .425 with 17 hits and he leads the team with a .558 on base percentage. Despite Delgado's outstanding numbers, the Blue Raiders are batting just .229 with one home run and one stolen base as a team.

Playing several tight games, Middle Tennessee has already notched three extra-inning wins in three attempts. Of the Blue Raiders' six wins, four have been by a one-run margin and the team's largest margin of victory has been three runs.

Memphis last played at the Ballpark at Jackson against Vanderbilt in 2014, when the Commodores won a pitching duel, 2-1, over the Tigers. Jake Little, Darien Tubbs and Zach Schritenthal all started in the game. The Tigers and Blue Raiders were scheduled to play at the park last season but the game was moved to FedExPark because of weather.

The Tigers first played at the then Pringles Park in 2008 and have a combined 3-4 record all-time at the ballpark against Austin-Peay, UT Martin and Vanderbilt.

Memphis will return to FedExPark this weekend to host Missouri State for a three-game series that gets underway Friday at 6:30 p.m.