After enduring a rocky 2-3 stretch recently, the University of Memphis baseball team got back to its winning ways this weekend, winning two out of three games at home against the American Athletic Conference-leading University of South Florida Bulls.
The Tigers (25-12, 7-5 AAC) dropped the series-opening contest 6-2 to South Florida (26-14-1, 8-4 AAC) on Friday, but bounced back in the second game of the doubleheader, winning 4-1.
Senior starting pitcher Dylan Toscano earned the win by dominating on the mound for all nine innings, yielding five hits and no earned runs while striking out seven batters and walking only one. The win improves Toscano’s record on the season to 6-1.
“I just tell myself that honestly this could be the last game I pitch, and I’m just gonna give it everything I’ve got and hopefully the team has the same energy and we’ll roll with it,” Toscano said.
The effort from Toscano set up a Saturday afternoon rubber match to decide the series between the top two teams in the AAC, and after nine innings the Tigers came out on top 6-4 behind a pair of monster performances at the plate from Nate Rupiper and Jake Overbey, who hit 3-for-4 with one RBI and 2-for-3 with two RBI, respectively. Memphis was out-hit 14-8, but utilized a three-run sixth inning to pull ahead and take control of the game.
With the series win over the conference-leading Bulls in hand, the Tigers are now in a tie with Houston for second in the AAC at 7-5, one game behind 8-4 South Florida. Memphis has three series against conference opponents remaining in the regular season.
“Every win is huge now in this league with the RPI creeping up in this league right now,” Memphis coach Daron Schoenrock said. “Every win you can grab is huge, and you’ve gotta hold serve at home. We’ve done that so far. That’s very important down the stretch, and we gotta find a way to sneak another road series, and we’ve got some tough opponents awaiting us.”
On Monday, it was announced that Memphis sophomore right-fielder Chris Carrier was named the AAC Hitter of the Week. Carrier hit .333 for the week, including 2-for-4 efforts in both the front end and the back end of Friday’s doubleheader split against USF.
The Hitter of the Week honor is the second of the season for Carrier, and the third for the Tigers. Senior first baseman Tucker Tubbs won the award last week.
Memphis resumes conference play this weekend with a three-game series on the road at UConn (25-15, 6-6 AAC), but first must get through a pair of mid-week nonconference clashes. The U of M will play Belmont at home on Tuesday before setting off for Oxford for a road contest against the Ole Miss Rebels.
The Tigers are no strangers to Belmont or Ole Miss. Memphis and Belmont have already played two games this season, with each team coming away with a win on the opposing school’s turf. In the two teams’ most recent contest in Nashville the Tigers came out on top of an 11-8 shootout.
Ole Miss defeated Memphis 7-5 earlier in the season, scoring three runs in the top of the seventh to come away with the victory in the only other meeting between the two teams this year.
Memphis and Belmont will square off Tuesday evening at FedExPark, with first pitch set for 5:30 p.m.
Sophomore Chris Carrier was named American Athletic Conference Hitter of the Week for his strong performances last week. He recorded at least one hit in four straight games. Photo by David Minkin
