Tournament Starts Tuesday at 8 a.m.

Tuesday, May 23

Clearwater, Fla.

9:00 AM (ET)

University of Memphis

Houston

Photo by: Matthew Smith

May 22, 2017 | Baseball

Game Notes at American Athletic Conference Tournament

Memphis and Houston will meet in the tournament opener

CLEARWATER, Fla. – Due to expected inclement weather in the Clearwater, Fla. area on Wednesday, Memphis and No. 2 seed Houston will now play Tuesday at 8 a.m. CT at Spectrum Field.

GAME INFORMATION:
Tuesday, May 22 | 8 a.m. (CT)
No. 7 Memphis (29-27) vs. No. 2 Houston (36-19)
Location: Clearwater, Fla.
Venue: Spectrum Field
Twitter Updates: @MemphisBaseball
Audio: WUMR 91.7 FM
Video: American Digital Network
Live Stats: StatBroadcast

Leading Off
• Memphis finished seventh in the American Athletic Conference and will meet the league Co-Champion No. 2 Houston in the first round of The American Championship at Spectrum Field. The winner between the Tigers and Cougars will face the winner of the match-up between No. 3 UConn and No. 6 Cincinnati. The losers will play in an elimination game.
• Memphis and Houston last met in postseason play in the 2015 league tournament where the Cougars eliminated the Tigers. The two teams met in the first game of the 2007 C-USA Tournament and Memphis won 12-4. The Tigers also have recent tournament history against UConn and Cincinnati. Memphis played UConn three times in last season's tournament with the Huskies going 2-1. The Tigers eliminated the Bearcats from the 2015 tournament.
• Senior outfielder Chris Carrier earned first team All-Confernece honors following his outstanding regular-season campaign. Carrier batted .318 in 53 games played during the regular season with 14 doubles, 14 home runs, 44 RBI and 39 runs scored. In conference play Carrier batted .371 with seven doubles and nine homers. He drove in 29 runs and scored 17. He led the American in RBI and home runs during league play.
• Carrier has been scorching hot at the plate recently and enters the conference tournament on a career-best 18-game hitting streak. During the 18-game stretch he is hitting .394 with five doubles, eight homers, 22 RBI and 14 runs scored.
• Memphis right-handed pitcher Colton Hathock was named to the Midseason Watch List for the 13th annual National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association Stopper of the Year Award. Hathcock picked up his 11th save of the season in the April 25 win at Arkansas State. The 11 saves are the third most by a Tigers pitcher in a single season in school history. The single-season program record for saves is 14, set by Nolan Blackwood in 2015. Hathcock has since been moved into a starting role, which he spent all of the 2016 season in.
• Freshman shortstop Alec Trela has started all 56 games this season and is the first Tigers first-year player to start every game since Jacob Wilson in 2009. Wilson went on to play in 222 career games and stands in the top-5 in nearly every Memphis offensive category. Trela is batting .268 and leads the team with 19 doubles. His eight home runs are second on the team.
• Sophomore catcher Jason Santana has caught 24 runners stealing this season, which is the most in a single season in the last 20 years of Memphis baseball. Santana has allowed 40 stolen bases, throwing out approximately 38% of runners attempting to steal.
• Memphis played a grueling four-week stretch in April in which the Tigers went just 4-12. Of those 16 games to end the month of April, 14 were against top-50 RPI teams. The Tigers have played a total of 20 games against RPI top-50 teams this year, the third-most in The American.
• The series win at Cincinnati to start conference play was the first for Memphis over the Bearcats since 2004 and the first for head coach Daron Schoenrock. The Bearcats won the series over Schoenrock's Tigers in 2005 before joining the Big East Conference. The teams reunited in the American Athletic Conference in 2014 and have played two series against each other in 2015, 2016 and 2017.
• The Tigers won their 20th game on April 5 against Alcorn State, marking significant improvement from last season. Memphis ended the 2016 regular season with 19 wins and picked up the 20th on May 26 in the American Athletic Conference tournament. However, since recording the 20th win of the season the Tigers have gone just 9-18 with 11 games against ranked opposition.
• As part of the Tigers Feb. 24-26 sweep of Illinois State, Memphis rallied from an 11-0 deficit to win 12-11 in extra innings during the second game of the series. The comeback win is the largest in the Daron Schoenrock era of Memphis baseball.
• Memphis had a record-setting opening weekend against Tennessee at FedExPark. The two teams squared off Sunday Feb. 19 in front of the largest crowd in FedExPark history of 2,188. The three-game series set another facility record, attracting 4,793 fans throughout the weekend.