While most of the sports world was focused on the Madness of men's basketball, Memphis Softball won their first AAC series since 2019 against UTSA after a wild weekend.
Punctuating a four-game homestand with what was supposed to be a weekend series, storms rolling through the area changed the games to be a doubleheader on Friday and the rubber match was played on Sunday.
Game 1: Memphis 7 UTSA 2
It all started with a twin bill on Friday, where the Tigers used a big fifth inning to pick up game one. After securing the lead in the second, Memphis capitalized on an error by the Road Runners to score four runs to put the game out of reach.
A big reason for the win was a solid performance at the mound for Rylee Dugar, who threw four strikeouts and forced six groundouts and five flyouts.
"Our whole pitching staff is growing...I've challenged [Rylee] to be great on a consistent basis," said Coach Prater after the second game. "They all keep showing glimpses of it, but the consistent performances is what I keep challenging them to do."
Game 2: UTSA 4 Memphis 3
In the second game of the afternoon, the Tigers were on the backfoot for the entire contest. Even though they struck first with two runs in the second inning, UTSA were able to respond in kind.
Memphis was beaten by themselves in this one. They committed four errors, one of which directly led to the score which gave the Road Runners a one-run lead headed to the bottom of the seventh.
Despite having a few chances to walk-off the game, the home team were unable to do so and split the series.
Game 3: Memphis 9 UTSA 8
The decider in this series was nothing like the other two contests. This one was an absolute shootout that went down to the wire.
The game was back-and-forth, both teams traded haymakers on the scoreboard. UTSA scored in the first, Memphis responded a three run second inning. When the Road Runners put two runs up in the third, the Tigers were able to tie it up.
It went this way until the score was 8-7 in favor of the visitors in the bottom of the sixth, when Zoe Adebayo made yet another clutch play for her squad, a double with two RBIs which won the game.
Adebayo said afterwards that "the whole game, it was just a gritty fight...We were going back-and-forth with the punches and I think just having everybody stay up, stay determined, stay gritty, settle down when it got a little too amped up...and then come out victorious on the other side is pretty sweet."
The Tigers are back in action on March 21 as they start their series against North Texas in Denton.
