Memphis Hangs on in Thrilling 7-6 Win Over UCF

Tuesday, May 24

Clearwater, Fla.

3 P.M.

University of Memphis

26-27

UCF

32-24

Memphis

UCF

May 24, 2022 | Baseball

Box Score

May 24, 2022

Memphis Hangs on in Thrilling 7-6 Win Over UCF

CLEARWATER, Fla. – A game that came down to the final pitch saw the #7 Memphis Tigers (26-27, 9-15) upset the #2 UCF Knights (32-24) 7-6, as UCF left the tying run at third base in the ninth. RHP Blake Wimberley (SV, 3) struck out 1B Ben McCabe to strand PH Andrew Brait 90 feet away and deliver the first upset of the AAC Tournament. It's the second straight year that the Tigers have pulled an upset in their first game of the tournament, as they took down #1 East Carolina last season.

Memphis: 7, UCF: 6
WP: Landon Gartman (7-1)
LP: Ben Vespi (6-4)
SV: Blake Wimberley (3)

How it happened:

The Tigers struck first, as a 1B Chris Swanberg plated a run with a bases loaded double play in the second inning
Memphis held the lead until the bottom of the third, as Gartman retired seven of the first eight batters that he faced before RF Trent Taylor reached on a bunt single and DH Noah Orlando put UCF in front 2-1 with a two-run home run
The Tigers loaded the bases with one out against the combination of Vespi and RHP Chase Centala in the fourth, and after Centala retired C Taylor Howell, RF Blake Daniels plated three runs with a two-out, two-strike triple into the right field corner, as Memphis led 4-2
Memphis extended the lead to 7-2 with a three run fifth, as 3B Logan Kohler plated a run with a bases loaded single to left field, while two runs scored on a hot shot by Howell off the glove of SS Alex Freeland
The Tigers threatened to put the game away with scoring chances throughout the rest of the game, though three more UCF pitchers kept Memphis off the board
LF Lex Boedicker led off the bottom of the fifth with a single and later scored on a two-out RBI single by Gephry Pena that made it 7-3, which is where the score remained until the eighth
After seven frames from Gartman, Memphis turned to LHP Dalton Kendrick, who struggled to throw strikes over one+ inning
A pair of walks led to an eventual two-out RBI single by 3B Michael Brooks in the eighth that made it 7-4, though Kendrick stranded the bases loaded
Kendrick pitched to two batters in the ninth and both reached, which caused Memphis to go back to the bullpen and bring in Wimberley
A wild pitch by Wimberley plated a run and moved the tying runs into scoring position, while an RBI groundout by Pena made it 7-6 and put the tying run at third base with only one out
Wimberley got 2B Tom Josten to ground out to first base, which held the runner at third, and the Memphis righty struck out McCabe to end the game and wrap up Memphis' 7-6 win

Notables:

The Tigers had 27 at-bats with at least one runner on base and 20 with at least one man in scoring position compared to 15 and eight respectively for UCF
Five Tigers had multiple hits, led by Kohler's three-hit performance, as Memphis
SS Ben Brooks (2-4) notched his 19^th multi-hit game of the season, tied for the most on the team, while LF Ian Bibiloni (2-4), Kohler (3-4), CF Zach Wilson (2-4), and Daniels (2-5) picked up their 16^th, 15^th, 14^th, and 10^th multi-hit efforts of the season
Kohler's performance was his fifth game with at least three hits, second most on the team
With three RBIs, Daniels recorded his sixth multi-RBI game of the season and fourth with at least three RBIs
Brooks extended his on-base streak to 18 games, his second 18-game on-base streak of the season

Up Next:

The Tigers will meet the winner of Tuesday's Houston/Wichita State game Thursday afternoon
First pitch Thursday will be 47 minutes after the conclusion of East Carolina/Cincinnati, approximately 3:30 p.m. Central

How to follow the Tigers: For complete information on Memphis Tigers Baseball, visit www.GoTigersGo.com and follow the team's social media channels on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.