The Memphis softball team finally had their home opener last night a month into the season, two of them in fact. They took advantage, winning the doubleheader against Belmont 8-6 and 9-1 both in five innings on Tuesday.
The Lady Tigers took advantage of a struggling Belmont team (5-16), and improved their record to 9-12 on the season.
“I definitely knew that Belmont was struggling a little and I was hoping we’d come out strong,” Memphis coach Natalie Poole said to gotigersgo.com after the game. “But anytime you let a team hang around sometimes like that (in the first game) it may come back to bite you. But we did a great job of coming out strong even though we gave up two runs in the first inning. Then we come back and score seven so we were on our way to putting the game away early.”
Like Poole said Memphis did not get off to the best start. Trailing 2-0 at the middle of the first inning. The Lady Tigers quickly turned it around with a seven run first-inning led by redshirt freshman Sami Jo Schulz’s triple, and they were in control for the remainder of the game.
Despite winning the first game 8-6, they were out-hit by Belmont eight to seven.
Poole said she was disappointed with the Tigers’ hitting performance in the later innings.
“I feel like some of our at-bats did not continue to get better and that’s what I wanted to see even though we were successful early on,” Poole said.
Freshman pitcher Katie Brignac (2-0) earned the victory for Memphis in the first game.
The second game was much more straightforward for the Lady Tigers as they got off to a 2-0 first inning lead, and never trailed at any point in the game.
“In the second game I felt like we did a much better job of scoring in multiple innings,” Poole said. “So we come out and score right away, we score again, we scored again and that’s what we wanted to see. Not scoring and then not scoring again like we have been doing. That was great.”
Belmont scored their only run in the fifth inning after Memphis had already built a 9-0 lead.
Lady Tigers freshman pitcher Molly Smith (2-2) shut out Belmont for four innings, and allowed three hits in the win.
Sophomore second baseman Brittany Vaughn made her first appearance on Tuesday after coming back from offseason injury. Though she was limited to pinch-hit opportunities, she hit a home run over left field in game two for a two-run homer and her first hit of the season.
“I knew what to expect (coming off injury),” Vaughn said after the win. “It feels really good to be back on the dirt. I kind of say that I’m the ball magnet. I either get hit by the ball or I have a really good at-bat. It felt really good to put a bat on the ball, and to come on the home run side.”
The Lady Tigers open up American Athletic Conference play this weekend at Tulsa. The two teams play a doubleheader on Saturday starting at 1 p.m. and a game on Sunday at noon.
