The University of Memphis baseball team saw its 11-game winning streak come to a halt with a loss to Arkansas last Wednesday, but the Tigers were able to get back to their winning ways by taking two of three on the road at East Carolina to kick off American Athletic Conference play.
Memphis (17-6, 2-1 AAC) dropped the front-end of a doubleheader 4-1 to ECU (17-12, 1-2 AAC) on Saturday, but bounced back with a 3-2 victory on the back-end and a 4-2 win on Sunday. The weekend marked the first time in program history that the Tigers were able to come away with a series win on the road in Greenville.
“(Greenville) is a very tough place to win,” Memphis head coach Daron Schoenrock said. “They feed off of energy at home, but our dugout was very good. (ECU starting pitcher David Lucroy) had his good stuff going and really located pitches. We just kept talking about staying positive during at bats.”
Lucroy is one of the very best pitchers in the AAC with an ERA of 1.62 in 39 innings of work so far this season, but the Tigers were able to log four hits and three runs during his 6 1/3 innings on the mound in the third and final game of the series, with the runs coming by way of a three-run inside-the-park home run from Darien Tubbs.
Tubbs has been in the midst of a breakout season in his sophomore campaign, batting .345 with four doubles and nine RBI. Tubbs hit just .226 with 15 RBI in 59 games during his freshman year.
In each of Memphis’ two wins against the Pirates the Tigers trailed early and took control in the second half of the contest, which is an indication of the team’s strong bullpen that, according to Schoenrock, can match up with anybody.
Pitching has been key for the Tigers as they’ve held opponents to three runs or less in 17 of 23 contests this season — including the two wins against ECU. Memphis is 15-2 this season when keeping opponents to three runs or lower, and 2-4 when opponents score four runs or more.
The Tigers started off conference play on the right foot, but still have a difficult schedule in front of them. Memphis plays a one-off game against Ole Miss (14-14 , 4-5 SEC) Tuesday evening before a three-game series against league-favorite Houston (19-9, 1-2 AAC) this weekend.
“It’s still a very, very difficult stretch,” Schoenrock said. “The good thing is that you’re going into that with a good feeling now.”
With ECU out of the way, Memphis will hope to use the mid-week home game against Ole Miss to build more momentum into the weekend series against Houston.
First pitch between the Tigers and Rebels is set for 6:30 p.m. Tuesday downtown at the newly renovated AutoZone Park.
The Tigers will play its second home game at AutoZone Park in the last two weeks. Memphis fell to Arkansas 7-3 last Wednesday in its first home game at AutoZone Park. Photo by David Minkin.
