Softball in Tourney Action at Arizona State

Friday, February 19

Tempe, Ariz.

12:15 p.m.

University of Memphis

Illinois State

Tickets

Photo by: Joe Murphy

Feb 18, 2016 | Softball

Tigers to play five non-conference matches over three days.

By: Tammy DeGroff

MEMPHIS – The Memphis softball team has headed west and will face five teams in the Arizona State Littlewood Classic, beginning Friday at Farrington Stadium in Tempe. The Tigers will face Illinois State, Friday, at 11:15 a.m. (PT), then faces host Arizona State that same night at 8:15 p.m. (PT). The Sun Devils are currently ranked No. 17 in the country in the latest USA Today/NFCA Coaches Poll.

Saturday, Memphis faces Montana (11:15 a.m.) and Michigan State (1:30 p.m.), then wraps up against Northern Iowa, Sunday, at 11:15 a.m.

Memphis is looking to keep up the offensive clip that got started last weekend at the Florida Gulf Coast tournament and expects the Tiger pitching staff to settle in with the first tournament under the belts.

"We talked about a lot of lessons learned last weekend," Poole said. "We're young in our pitching staff. I thought Molly (Smith) made some great adjustments from her first game to her second game last weekend. Some of our other staff is addressing the need to work ahead, to get those strikes early so they can pitch and be who they know they can be later in the counts.

"We have a pretty good size pitching staff, so they haven't pitched a lot of innings in the preseason," Poole added. "But some of that is endurance, both mentally and physically, and learning how to handle that as you see a hitter at the plate for a second and third time."

In the circle, Memphis got a complete game win from Smith last weekend. The shutout has her ranked 12^th in the country, but the Tigers had to work from behind in other games and committed 10 errors behind their pitchers that extended some innings.

"Defensively, we made some simple mistakes catching and throwing last weekend, things we are definitely capable of doing," Poole said.

And if the defense can shore up behind the young pitching staff, the offense has picked up the pace from last season.

"We've got some really great speed, and our speed is getting on base," Poole said. "We were successful with 10 of 12 stolen bases last weekend, and with our hitters in the middle being able to do some things I think we definitely have more potential than we've had in the past."

Junior first baseman Lindsey Stickrod was named the Tennessee Sports Writers Association Player of the Week last week after hitting two homeruns, including a grand slam in the season opener, and adding a triple and a double, scoring nine RBIs. Her nine RBIs leads The American following the first weekend of the season and currently ranks 20^th in the country.

"I feel like offensively we had a good presence last weekend," Poole said. "It was nice to see some players come up in some clutch situations. In the past, we've had speed, but we haven't had the power in the lineup to drive in those runs, so that power has been a nice addition."

In the early going of the season, a pair of Tigers also leads the conference in stolen bases. Sophomore outfielder Kyler Trosclair leads the league with five stolen bases, and teammate Hannah Harrell is right behind her with four swipes. Memphis ranks 19^th in the country with 2.0 steals per game in the first weekly rankings.

But putting the three phases together will be a focus on the second weekend of the season.

"We were definitely in some games last weekend that got away from us," Poole said. "We want to push ahead and be stronger toward the finish of games. I want to see us overcome some situations where the game may be trying to slip away from us and just focus on being stronger there to finish."

The Friday night game against Arizona State will be streamed on the PAC12 Network. Live stats for all of the other games will be available at: http://bit.ly/MEMSB6-10.