University of Memphis Athletics
Friday, February 26
Gulfport, Miss.
10 a.m.
University of Memphis
vs
Jackson State
Photo by: Joe Murphy
Softball Playing Four in Mississippi This Weekend
Feb 25, 2016 | Softball
Memphis playing two games Friday and two Saturday.
MEMPHIS – After playing the first two weekends in different time zones, the University of Memphis softball team will keep it closer this weekend, participating in the Mississippi Gulf Coast Softball Classic at the Gulfport Sportsplex, Friday and Saturday.
Memphis will play a pair of schools from the SWAC on Friday. The Tigers will open the tournament against Jackson State at 10 a.m., then face Mississippi Valley State at 12:30 p.m. On Saturday, it'll be a pair of Southland Conference opponents for the Tigers, facing Southeastern Louisiana at 3 p.m. and Nicholls State at 5:30 p.m. to wrap up the tournament.
"I feel like we're running the bases well and last weekend, we had a better offensive performances from some players that maybe didn't figure it out on the first weekend," Head Coach Natalie Poole said. "We can still do a better job pitching, we're giving up too many walks, and then we are following it up with an error. But we do have some people playing out of position. We didn't even take our starting shortstop last weekend, so we're moving some people around."
Freshman Tyler Johnson has made an impact early. After starting all five games at third in the opening weekend, the freshman moved over to shortstop to fill in for Sami Jo Schulz at the Arizona State tournament last weekend. She now leads the team with a .375 batting average and is second with six runs scored.
"Tyler just does a good job," Poole Said. "She's very competitive and composed and is hitting in the four and five spots for us and could probably be in three, four or five slots if we needed that."
Owning an edge on the base paths has also been a strength of the Tigers in the early going. Junior Hannah Harrell (10 for 12 stolen base attempts) ranks ninth in the nation and first in The American with 1.0/stolen bases per game, while teammate Kyler Trosclair is second in the league (and 79th in the country) with 0.50/stolen bases per game. Behind the plate, Memphis has also focused on slowing down opposing baserunners, as Brittany Seale threw out three runners in the team's last game against Northern Iowa.
"UNI just kept pushing the issue and we just did a good job of keeping the runners there," Poole said. "When you give up a walk and put runners on, that is a concern, but we've been good back there."
After back-to-back weekends of five games, there's just four on tap for this weekend, a welcome change for some possibly road-weary Tigers.
"We got in about 1 a.m. Monday, so we're just trying to get our legs underneath us and get to work," Poole said. "The girls know what they want to attack and we just need to get it applied to our games this weekend."
Memphis will play a pair of schools from the SWAC on Friday. The Tigers will open the tournament against Jackson State at 10 a.m., then face Mississippi Valley State at 12:30 p.m. On Saturday, it'll be a pair of Southland Conference opponents for the Tigers, facing Southeastern Louisiana at 3 p.m. and Nicholls State at 5:30 p.m. to wrap up the tournament.
"I feel like we're running the bases well and last weekend, we had a better offensive performances from some players that maybe didn't figure it out on the first weekend," Head Coach Natalie Poole said. "We can still do a better job pitching, we're giving up too many walks, and then we are following it up with an error. But we do have some people playing out of position. We didn't even take our starting shortstop last weekend, so we're moving some people around."
Freshman Tyler Johnson has made an impact early. After starting all five games at third in the opening weekend, the freshman moved over to shortstop to fill in for Sami Jo Schulz at the Arizona State tournament last weekend. She now leads the team with a .375 batting average and is second with six runs scored.
"Tyler just does a good job," Poole Said. "She's very competitive and composed and is hitting in the four and five spots for us and could probably be in three, four or five slots if we needed that."
Owning an edge on the base paths has also been a strength of the Tigers in the early going. Junior Hannah Harrell (10 for 12 stolen base attempts) ranks ninth in the nation and first in The American with 1.0/stolen bases per game, while teammate Kyler Trosclair is second in the league (and 79th in the country) with 0.50/stolen bases per game. Behind the plate, Memphis has also focused on slowing down opposing baserunners, as Brittany Seale threw out three runners in the team's last game against Northern Iowa.
"UNI just kept pushing the issue and we just did a good job of keeping the runners there," Poole said. "When you give up a walk and put runners on, that is a concern, but we've been good back there."
After back-to-back weekends of five games, there's just four on tap for this weekend, a welcome change for some possibly road-weary Tigers.
"We got in about 1 a.m. Monday, so we're just trying to get our legs underneath us and get to work," Poole said. "The girls know what they want to attack and we just need to get it applied to our games this weekend."
Players Mentioned
OF
/ Softball
MI
/ Softball
INF
/ Softball
C
/ Softball
OF
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