No. 7 Tigers Face Off with No. 2 Wichita State in Opening Round of AAC Championship

Thursday, May 12

Greenville, N.C.

11 a.m.

University of Memphis

Wichita State

Photo by: Joshua Jones

No. 7 Tigers Face Off with No. 2 Wichita State in Opening Round of AAC Championship

May 09, 2022 | Softball

2022 American Athletic Conference Championship Bracket

MEMPHIS, Tenn.- The bracket for the 2022 American Athletic Conference Championship is set and the Tigers find themselves as the 7-seed and will take on the Shockers of Wichita State as the 2-seed. They will square off in the opening round of the tournament on Thursday afternoon in Greenville, N.C.

Memphis (16-37, 2-16 AAC) is looking to get back into the win column after dropping their last 10 games of the season. Gracie Morton has led the team this season with 65 hits and 33 runs scored while going .394 from the plate and leading the team with four homeruns while Camryn Wineinger and Kendall Lee have chipped in a combined 51 runs batted in. Along with Morton, Linsey Hargis has recorded four homers in her 39 games played this year.

Hallie Siems and Mikayla Hoschak have spent the most time in the pitcher's circle for the Tigers this season. The duo has combined for 149 of the team's 185 strikeouts this year while they have thrown a total of 10 complete games between the two of them.

Wichita State (32-15, 14-4 AAC) has been atop of the American this season, even fighting with UCF for the regular season title this weekend. After the Shockers downed #21 UCF on Friday night in an 11-4 victory, they would go on to fall 3-1 and 9-5 in the final two games of the series to snag the 2-seed in the AAC Championship.

Sydney McKinney, Addison Barnard and Lauren Lucas have been the talk of the town in Wichita; all three hitting over .400, McKinney leads the team with a .497 batting average and 65 hits while Barnard, who leads the team and Division I in homeruns, has 30 this season and has driven in 77 runs.

Pitching wise, Erin McDonald and Caitlin Bingham have been the to-go's for Wichita State this season. McDonald, who leads the team with 82 strikeouts, picked up the 11-4 win over the Knights on Friday night after allowing just two hits in 4.1 innings of work while striking out four.

Earlier this season when the Tigers and Shockers met, it was all Wichita State. Following a 10-1 series opening win, the Shockers would go on to take 14-3 and 19-0 wins over Memphis.

Memphis and Wichita State will face-off in the opening round of the 2022 American Athletic Conference Championship on Thursday, May 12 at 1 p.m. CT. All games will be played at the Max R. Joyner Family Stadium on the campus of East Carolina University. Coverage of the game can be found on ESPN+ while live stats for the game can be found on GoTigersGo.com.

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