Tigers Return to FedExPark Tuesday, Travel to Miss State Wednesday

Tuesday, April 12

FedExPark

6:30 PM

University of Memphis

Austin Peay

Tickets

Photo by: Michael Gardner

Tigers Return to FedExPark Tuesday, Travel to Miss State Wednesday

Apr 11, 2016 | Baseball

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Memphis returns to FedExPark to host Austin Peay Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. before travelling to Starkville, Miss. to face No. 2 Mississippi State Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at Dudy Noble Field. The Tigers won the lone meetings with Austin Peay and Mississippi State last season, beating the Governors on the road and the Bulldogs at AutoZone Park.

GAME 32 INFORMATION:
Tuesday, April 12 | 6:30 p.m. CT
Memphis (12-19) vs. Austin Peay (18-12)
Location: Memphis, Tenn.
Venue: FedExPark
Twitter Updates: @MemphisBaseball
Audio: WUMR 91.7 FM
Video: MemphisTigerNetwork
Live Stats: StatBroadcast

GAME 33 INFORMATION:
Wednesday, April 13 | 6:30 p.m. CT
Memphis (12-19) at No. 2 Mississippi State (23-9-1)
Location: Starkville, Miss.
Venue: Dudy Noble Field
Twitter Updates: @MemphisBaseball
Audio: WUMR 91.7 FM
Video: SEC Network+
Live Stats: LiveStats

Leading Off
• Memphis won the lone meetings with Austin Peay and Mississippi State last season, beating the Governors on the road and the Bulldogs at AutoZone Park.
• The Tigers hope to build on a successful weekend, winning their first American Athletic Conference series of the season at USF.
• Austin Peay picked up a series win over Southeast Missouri and sits third in the Ohio Valley Conference standings. The team is built around its offense, which boasts a team batting average of .321.
• Mississippi State moved up to No. 2 in the national rankings after a weekend series win at Florida. The Bulldogs are in first place in the SEC West.
• The Tigers are having a similar start as the 2012 team that opened with a 12-17 record and went on to win 12 of the final 15 regular season games to end the year with a 31-28 record. That team advanced to the championship game of the C-USA Tournament.
• Preseason All-American Nolan Blackwood recorded his 22nd career save in the win over USF on April 9 and now holds the program record for career saves.
• Jake Little is shining at the plate in his senior season for the Tigers. The four-year Memphis player is batting a team-high .325 with 17 RBI and 23 runs scored after suffering an injury-plagued season in 2015.
• The Tigers started the season with a platoon at first base before Jacob Elliott took over at the position. Elliott has started the last 16 games at first base for Memphis and is batting .297 with 18 RBI and 12 runs scored.
• Memphis stands in the top 30 in the NCAA with 49 stolen bases this season. The Tigers have been successful on the base paths as an entire team and no Memphis player is in the top 50 in the country in stolen bases.
• All home games are streamed live online by the Memphis Tiger Network at GoTigersGo.com/Watch. WUMR U 92-FM carries the radio broadcasts throughout the season. Jeff Brightwell, who is joined by Greg Gaston for home games, will be on the call.
• Wednesday's game at Dudy Noble Field will be the second time this season that the Tigers have been on the SEC Network.
• The Memphis baseball program is in its fourth season as a partner with Baden Sports and swings the Axe Bat exclusively.

The Series with Miss State
Mississippi State leads the series with Memphis, 32-12, since 1978 but the Tigers hold a 3-1 edge over the last four seasons. Memphis also has won the last two meetings in Starkville. The last time the two teams met at Dudy Noble Field, Memphis beat the then seventh-ranked Bulldogs, 6-4. Mississippi State has on two occasions put together an eight-game winning streak against Memphis, from 1996-2003 and from 2004-07. The two teams were originally scheduled to play during the opening week but the game was rescheduled to due weather.

Recent History with the SEC
Despite losses this season to Tennessee, Ole Miss and Arkansas, Memphis still owns a 14-12 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.
The Series with Austin Peay
The Tigers have had success against Austin Peay, holding a 31-23 all-time series record since 1978. The Tigers played one game on the road against the Governors last season, winning 10-5 with home runs from Chris Carrier, Corey Chafin and Tucker Tubbs. The teams hold a 5-5 record during the last ten games played dating back to 2007, playing five of those games at a neutral site. The two teams last met at FedEx Park in 2013 where the Tigers fell 9-2.

Youth on the Mound
The names Jonathan Bowlan, Alex Hicks, James Muse, Colton Neel, Alex Smith and Hunter Smith are ones that Memphis baseball fans can likely expect to hear for years to come. These six true freshmen have already contributed on the mound for the Tigers early in their collegiate careers. They have combined to make 43 appearances with and log 72 innings. Only the Memphis sophomore class, which includes starters Connor Alexander and Colton Hathcock, has pitched more innings this season. As can be expected with some inexperienced arms, they have been wild at times with 42 walks, 11 hit batters and 19 wild pitches. More than 70% of the Tigers' innings pitched have come from either a freshman or sophomore.

Speed on the Bases
Memphis hasn't been as consistent offensively as they would have liked this season, but the team has still managed to swipe 49 of-62 bases which ranks them in the top-30 nationally. Darien Tubbs leads the team with 11 stolen bases, while Jake Little and Zach Schritenthal are just behind him with nine swiped bags apiece. In all, nine different Tigers have at least one stolen base.

Catching Carousel
In the search to replace Carter White, who started 52 games and batted .277 in 2015, the Tigers have seen three players split time behind the plate this season. Senior Damo DeMatteo has been in the starting lineup 15 times and appeared in 22 games while freshman Jason Santana has made 11 starts and played in 23 games. In an attempt to get more offensive production from the position, senior Corey Chafin has made five of his 15 starts at catcher.

Defensive Woes
Head Coach Daron Schoenrock preaches about limiting the amount of "freebies" that the tigers give up during a game. Through 31 games his team has had a few too many defensive miscues. The Tigers have 45 errors and are fielding .962. Memphis does have the ability to play clean though and has played eight errorless games with a 6-2 record in those games.

Bounce Back
Sometimes players can put too much pressure on themselves and one could wonder if that was the case for Darien Tubbs, who was named the American Athletic Conference Preseason Player of the Year. After starting the season with an eight-game hitting streak and four multiple-hit games, he hit a rough patch and amassed just one hit over the next seven games. Tubbs' batting average dipped to .233 and he was left out of the starting lineup against UAPB on March 15 for the first time in 76 games dating back to 2014. After being reinserted into the lineup Tubbs now has is batting average back up to .283.

Blackwood in the Record Book
Junior closer Nolan Blackwood recorded his fifth save of the season and 22nd of his career in the win over USF on April 9 to set the program record for career saves. Blackwood passed Jonathan Van Eaton, who pitched for Memphis from 2010-13. This record comes after he already set the school record for saves in a season with 14 last year. Blackwood now has three saves against USF, which is more than any single opponent in his career.