Tigers Close Season Against Wichita State at FedExPark

Friday, May 18

Memphis, Tenn.

2:00 p.m.

University of Memphis

Wichita State

Photo by: Joe Murphy

Tigers Close Season Against Wichita State at FedExPark

May 16, 2018 | Baseball

Memphis Baseball Notes - Wichita State

Memphis to honor its five seniors on Saturday

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – The Memphis Tigers will wrap up their season with a three-game series against Wichita State at FedExPark this weekend. The series gets underway Thursday at 6:30 p.m., continues on Friday at 6:30 p.m. and the season finale is scheduled for Saturday at 1 p.m.

The Tigers (19-34, 4-17 AAC) will honor their five seniors in a pregame ceremony prior to Friday's game.

SERIES INFORMATION:
Date: May 17-19, 2018 | 6:30 p.m. | 6:30 p.m. | 1 p.m.
Location: Memphis, Tenn.
Venue: FedExPark
Watch: Memphis Tiger Network
Listen: WUMR 91.7
Live Stats: GoTigersGo.com
Twitter Updates: @MemphisBaseball

This season marks the first time that Memphis and Wichita State will compete against one another on the baseball diamond. The Shockers joined the American Athletic Conference in 2017-18.

Wichita State and USF finished last weekend's series with a 9-9 tie. It was Wichita State's first tie since the 1988 MVC Championship game against Creighton. The tie also clinched the Shockers place in the American Athletic Conference Tournament, eliminating Memphis from contention.

Freshman Drew Talley made his first career start and earned his first win, in the Tigers 10-0 victory over UT Martin. Talley logged a career-high six innings and struck out a career-high 10 batters.

Cale Hennemann leads the Tigers at the plate in conference play, batting .369. With 14 walks and five HBP, Hennemann is also getting on base at .512 clip in league play.

The Memphis pitching staff stands third in the American Athletic Conference with 466 strikeouts this season. The Tigers rank in the Top-40 nationally with 9.1 strikeouts per nine innings.

After striking out a Memphis and American Athletic Conference record 18 batters in the April 28 win over USF, junior pitcher Jonathan Bowlan was named Collegiate Baseball Newspaper National Player of the Week, Tennessee Sports Writers Pitcher of the Week and the American Pitcher of the Week. 18 Ks are the most by a Division I pitcher this season.

The weather has consistently impacted the Tigers' weekend schedule at FedExPark this season. Memphis has been forced to adjust start times in six-of-seven home series and has played four weekend doubleheaders. The Tigers have also had to adjust on the road, with several changes to the Tri-Star Classic schedule as well as a time change at Cincinnati.

With back-to-back wins under its belt, Memphis has won two-straight games for just the fifth time this season. This is the first time since 2005 that the Tigers have failed to win at least three-straight games during the first 13 weeks of the season. The 2005 team went the entire season without a winning streak.

Memphis continues to pile up close losses this season, with 20 defeats by three runs or less. The Tigers have seven one-run losses, nine two-run losses and four three-run losses.