Tigers Baseball Pulls a “Shocker” In First Round
“We came up with some big hits at times and played pretty good defense… Any time you can win a game and get a day off, it allows your pitching to get rested and puts us in a great position to accomplish our ultimate goal – dog-piling on Sunday.” – Kerrick Jackson
These are the words from the Tiger’s head coach following their win, 10-6, over the number three seed in Wichita State. Memphis would come into the tournament with the number six seed and be the third lower-seeded team to pull an upset over a higher-seeded team of the day. With the win, Memphis will move on to the winner’s bracket of the double-elimination tournament.
We will analyze the win, how it took place, and when the Tigers will play next. With the win, Memphis has now won a third straight opening round of the American Conference Tournament. Let’s find out how this win happened.
Memphis would start Luke Ellis, who would be making his fifth start of the season and would perform well. Ellis would allow an early run in the bottom of the first on an RBI from Payton Tolle. Memphis would give Ellis some cushion in the top of the second when Anthony Hansen would hit his 12th deep ball of the year. Three batters later, Shane Cox would score on a Brennan DuBose triple to give Memphis a, 2-1, lead. To close the inning for runs Memphis would take advantage of a blown play by the Shockers to score DuBose.
Memphis would extend the lead in the third inning. In that inning, the Tigers would take advantage of an error by the Shockers and score Hansen and RJ Jimerson. This would put Memphis up, 5-1, to close the top half of the inning.
Wichita State would get a run, to cut the deficit to 5-2, when Tolle would ground out and get an RBI when Rodden would score. Memphis would quickly get that run back when Logan Kohler would hit his eleventh home run to right field to make the score 6-2.
Memphis would make a pitching change in the fourth by pulling Ellis for reliever David Warren. Ellis would finish with 4 innings pitched while allowing 7 H, 4 R, 2 BB, 5 SO, and 1 HPB. Ellis would face 20 batters and throw a total of 76 pitches.
Warren would win up with the win in his four innings of labor. In those innings, Warren would allow 4 H, 2 R, 1 BB, and 5 Ks on the night. Warren would win, bringing his record to 5-5 in 2023. Memphis would close the game out with Dalton Kendrick to finish off the Shockers.
Memphis would score their remaining four runs in two innings. In the seventh, Memphis would score on a wild pitch when Jimerson would make the score 8-4. In the eighth, Memphis was on a pair of two-out runs when Curtis scored on a Baskin double. Baskin would later score on a Kohler single to left to put Memphis up 10-5. Wichita State would score in the bottom of the inning to make the final score of 10-6.
What’s Next?
Up next, Memphis will take on the number seven seed Tulane Green Wave. These two will start, on Thursday afternoon, at approximately 4:30 local time. Memphis and Tulane recently met, on May 18th through 20th, when Memphis would win the final home regular season series. In those games, Memphis would outscore the Green Wave 31- 15.
