Tigers use five-run ninth inning to earn comeback win

Wednesday, April 3

Jonesboro, Ark.

6:30 p.m.

University of Memphis

14-13

Arkansas State

19-11

Memphis

Arkansas State

Photo by: Kelly Ross

Tigers use five-run ninth inning to earn comeback win

Apr 03, 2019 | Baseball

Box Score

Five runs with two outs propel Memphis to midweek victory at Arkansas State

JONESBORO, Ark. – Late-inning dramatics rallied Memphis to a 7-4 midweek victory at Arkansas State on Wednesday night at Tomlinson Stadium.

Trailing by a pair of runs in the ninth inning, Memphis (14-13, 3-3) scored five two-out runs on four hits and took advantage of an Arkansas State (19-11, 7-2) miscue to complete the comeback.

Kyle Ouellette singled and Ben Brooks followed with a walk to lead off the rally. Two batters later, Hunter Goodman singled to shortstop with two outs and two strikes to cut the deficit to 4-3.

Payton Marshall reached base on a hit-by-pitch to load the bases before Nick Vaage sent a hard chopper to second base. A miscue at the keystone scored a pair of runs to give Memphis a 5-4 lead. Jason Santana and Cale Hennemann then followed with RBI singles to set the 7-4 advantage.

In the bottom of the frame, Colton Neel notched his sixth save of the season.

Bailey Wimberley etched his first collegiate win on the mound. Entering the game behind 4-2 in the seventh, the Eads, Tenn., native allowed only one hit in two shutout innings of work and tallied four strikeouts.

"Being down 4-2, Bailey comes in and holds it right there," Head Coach Daron Schoenrock said of the rookie. "A freshman that hasn't had a lot of mound time comes in and threw pitches for strikes. He attacked the zone. That was a big moment for him."

Starting in his fourth straight game, Marshall registered a multi-hit day with a 2-for-3 outing and drove in the first two Tiger runs of the day. Ouellette added his fourth multiple hit day of the season, going 2-for-4.

"I want to give credit to the pitching staff for keeping it within striking distance," Marshall said of the rally. "Credit the other guys who worked at bats and got on base so we could hit a ball up the middle and get the go-ahead runs."

Through the first eight frames, Arkansas State used timely offense to gain its lead. The home side plated four runs on five hits, including three runs on three hits in the fourth inning.

Memphis began the game with a run in the top of the first inning. With two aboard, Marshall drove in the day's first run on a single up the middle to extend his hitting streak to six games.

Drawing his second start on the mound in the Tiger Blue and Gray, Landon Kelly turned in an efficient start before finding trouble in the fourth inning. The redshirt sophomore retired the first nine batters he faced on 25 pitches. Arkansas State then found a string of offense in the fourth inning, using a 2-RBI double and RBI single to gain a lead 3-1.

The Tigers got a run back via a sacrifice fly from Marshall in the fifth, while Arkansas State added a run in the sixth before Memphis posted its rally.

The Tigers will return to action this weekend with a three-game set against Southern University (16-13, 10-2) at FedExPark. The series opener against the Jaguars is slated for Friday with first pitch at 6 p.m.

"We're in a nice groove," Schoenrock added. "Southern leads the SWAC, so we're playing two teams back-to-back (Arkansas State and Southern), who are leading their conference right now. The challenge is there for us."