The Memphis Tigers baseball team’s winning streak ended Wednesday, but luckily for them the games are coming thick and fast so the opportunity to build another winning streak is right around the corner.
Memphis’ (15-5) 11 game-winning streak came to a halt against the Arkansas Razorbacks on Wednesday at AutoZone Park falling 7-3, and splitting the home-and-home with their SEC opponent.
This weekend, the Tigers will kick off American Athletic Conference play with a trip to North Carolina to take on the East Carolina University Pirates (16-10), a team that has lost their last three games.
Last season, Memphis struggled in conference play finishing second to last with an 8-16 record, only the Cincinnati Bearcats (6-18) finished with a worse record in the American.
Their opponent, ECU, will be taking part in the American conference baseball play for the first time, departing Conference USA at the end of last season. The last time Memphis and ECU clashed was in 2013 season, and the Pirates won the three-game series at home 2-1.
Memphis will hope their loss against Arkansas was not the end of a great run, but a blip. However, committing three errors in a game does not help matters. Though on the season Memphis has made ten less errors than their opponents (31-21), they’ll need that trend to continue if their successful season is to continue.
All was not lost in the defeat, however. Memphis sophomore Darien Tubbs continued his terrific start to the season with an incredible 5-5 performance in the loss on Wednesday.
Tubbs’ average is up over 100 points from last year going from .226 in 2014 to an incredible .370 through 20 games in 2015.
He’s also scored the most runs on the team leading the Tigers with 24, and his fielding this season has been perfect percentage wise as he has not committed an error this season.
Another encouraging sight for the Tigers is that Tubbs’ has not been a one-man band this season. Senior Kane Barrow leads the team with a .385 batting average, picking up right where he left off last season. He leads the team with 30 hits, and is second on the team with 13 RBI.
Two more players who complete the set of Memphis’ four players who are currently batting over .300 for Memphis are sophomore Zach Schritenthal and senior first baseman Tucker Tubbs.
The two are hitting .362 and .315, respectively. Schritenthal is second on the team in hits with 21. Tucker leads the team in RBIs with 21, and has the highest slugging average on the Tigers with a .548 average. Tucker also has three home runs this season, half of the Tigers six home runs this season, and is the only player on the team to have more than one.
Pitching has played a key role in the Tigers’ early success this season as well. When Memphis allows fewer than six runs they are 14-2, but are 1-3 when they give up more than six runs.
Memphis’ three starting pitchers this season: freshman Connor Alexander, senior Caleb Wallingford and senior Dylan Toscano are a combined 9-1 this season, giving up only 25 runs between them through 20 games.
The bullpen has also played their part in closing games. Memphis is 12-0 when in the lead after the eighth inning. Redshirt junior Craig Caufield is 3-0 out of the bullpen this season, and sophomore Nolan Blackwood leads the Tigers with seven saves.
The Tigers three game weekend series with the Pirates will begin in Greenville, North Carolina, on Friday. The two teams will play again on Saturday and conclude the series on Sunday.
Photo by Joe Murphy.
