University of Memphis Athletics

Memphis Edges Southern Miss, 5-4, in Series Opener
May 08, 2009 | Baseball
May 8, 2009
MILLINGTON, Tenn. -
Southern Miss (28-20, 11-11 C-USA) 100 000 300 - 4 9 3 Memphis (20-27, 6-12 C-USA) 130 010 00x - 5 9 2
In the first Friday night start of his career, junior lefthander Brach Davis struck out five in 6.1 innings and senior Matt Yokley worked a scoreless ninth to nail down his 18th career save as Memphis edged Southern Miss, 5-4, in Friday night's series opener at USA Stadium.
Davis gave up a two-out run in the first inning, but then cruised through the next 5.1, limiting the Golden Eagles to just four hits.
While Davis stymied the USM offense, the Tiger offensive took control of the game with four scores in the first two innings. Memphis got on the board in the fist after Drew Martinez drew a leadoff walk, advanced to second on a passed ball. Trey Wiedman tied the ballgame at 1-1 with an RBI-single up the middle.
Chris Newsom lined a leadoff single up the middle to ignite a three-run second that put Memphis ahead for good. Jacob Wilson followed with a single and Robby Graham moved both runners into scoring position with a successful sacrifice bunt. Newsom scored the go-ahead run on a sac fly by Martinez, and Tyler Huelsing ripped an RBI-double to rightfield to score Wilson for a 3-1 game. Memphis then took advantage of a USM error to make it a three-run game.
Newsom drew a bases loaded walk in the fifth to extend the Tigers lead to 5-1.
Southern Miss used two Memphis errors to cut make it a 5-4 game in the seventh. The Golden Eagles threatened to score the tying run in the top of the ninth when they placed runners on second and third with two outs in the ninth. However, Yokley was able to strike out Kameron Brunty to seal the Tigers win.
Davis earned his first win since defeating Kansas, 2-1, on Feb. 22. Yokley earned his fourth save of the year.
J.R. Ballinger was tagged with the loss after giving up five runs on six hit in four innings. He struck out one. Moses Munoz was solid in relief of Ballinger. The southpaw fanned six in 3.2 scoreless innings.
Graham led the Memphis offense with a 2-for-3 effort. Huelsing and Wiedman both went 2-for-4 for the Tigers, who improve to 20-27, 6-12 in C-USA play. Huelsing scored two runs for Memphis.
The U of M will go for its first series victory of the year on Saturday, when the two clubs square off at 2 p.m. Saturday has been designated as "Senior Day". Memphis will honor its six seniors and one junior that are playing in the final home series of their careers.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Davis, Brach (2-5)
L: JR Ballinger (4-3)
S: Yokley, Matt (4)
Batting:
2B: Corey Stevens 1
RBI: Taylor Walker 1 ; Corey Stevens 2
SH: James Ewing 1 ; Travis Graves 1
SF: Corey Stevens 1
Base Running:
RUNS: James Ewing 1 ; Bo Davis 2 ; Tyler Koelling 1
SB: Tyler Koelling 2
HBP: Travis Graves 1

Batting:
2B: Huelsing, Tyler 1 ; Wiedman, Trey 1 ; Graham, Robby 1
RBI: Martinez, Drew 1 ; Huelsing, Tyler 1 ; Wiedman, Trey 1 ; Newsom, Chris 1
SH: Graham, Robby 1
SF: Martinez, Drew 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Martinez, Drew 1 ; Huelsing, Tyler 2 ; Newsom, Chris 1 ; Wilson, Jacob 1
CS: Wiedman, Trey 1