The University of Memphis baseball team continued its recent success Wednesday night, shutting out the University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions, 5-0. The win now gives the Tigers a six-game winning streak.
Memphis (20-13) had five pitchers collectively shut down the UAPB (10-21) offense by only allowing three hits over the course of the game.
Dylan Toscano made his first start of the season for the Tigers and the first right-hander to start a game. Toscano pitched four innings for Memphis, striking out one batter and allowing one hit.
Zach Willis helped the Tigers jump out to a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning when he led off the inning with a line drive triple to left-centerfield. Ethan Gross slapped a groundball to the right side of the diamond, allowing Willis to scamper home. Memphis did not look back from that point on.
In the bottom of the third inning, the Tigers added some insurance runs to pad their lead. Back-to-back singles by Carter White and Tucker Tubbs produced a three-run rally for Memphis. After an interference call was made on UAPB during a run down of Tubbs, who was awarded second base, Drew Griffin singled to left to drive in two more runs.
Freshman Collin Lee was the first pitcher out of the bullpen for the Tigers. He struck out three batters and allowed one hit over two innings of work.
In the bottom of the fifth inning Memphis tacked on another run to build a 5-0 lead, as White drove in Gross with an RBI single to left field.
After Lee's two innings, Jon Reed and Conner Porter combined for the next two innings and neither allowed a hit. Reed struck out two batters, while Porter struck out the side in the eighth inning. Heith Hatfield pitched a scoreless ninth inning for the Tigers allowing one hit and a walk, but had two strikeouts.
Tubbs led the team with three hits while Willis and White had two hits apiece. Memphis out-slugged the Lions 10-3 on the evening.
The Tigers went 7-3 during their 11-game home stand with a makeup game against Ole Miss slated for Monday night at AutoZone Park.
Memphis will now play five games over the next five days, but head coach Daron Schoenrock is not too worried. He says the Tigers have plenty of starting pitching and a quality bullpen to rely on.
"As a hitter you kind of like it," Schoenrock said. "You get in a routine, take your [batting practice] and play."
Memphis is travelling to Birmingham, Ala., for a three-game Conference USA series with the University of Alabama-Birmingham Blazers (15-18) at Young Memorial Field.
"UAB will be a tough challenge," Schoenrock said. "Coach [Brian] Shoop does a great job in-game exploiting weaknesses you have."
Memphis is looking for redemption after being defeated by the Blazers in the C-USA Championship game last year. The Tigers were beat 5-0 in the game after winning seven straight against UAB.
The Tigers will look to improve on their six-game winning streak when left-hander Sam Moll (5-2, 2.77 ERA) takes to the hill Friday at 6:30 p.m. Left-hander Erik Schoenrock (4-2, 2.21 ERA) gets the nod Saturday at 2 p.m., while fellow lefty Alex Gunn (2-2, 1.89 ERA) will toe the rubber for the series finale Sunday at 1 p.m.
"Sam's had a great career and shown a lot of pitching maturity," Schoenrock said. "And we follow him up with two very good lefties on the weekend too."
