March 30, 2007
Memphis 8, No.29 Southern Miss 1
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Box Score
MEMPHIS, Tenn. -
No. 29 Southern Miss (17-10; 1-3 C-USA) 000 000 001 - 1 6 4
Memphis (15-11; 1-3 C-USA) 050 000 12X - 8 14 0
Memphis attacked Southern Miss for five runs in the bottom of the second and Ben Grisham tossed eight innings of shutout baseball as the Tigers snapped a five-game losing skid with a convincing 8-1 win over No. 29 Southern Miss in the Conference USA series-opener Friday night at Nat Buring Stadium.
The Tiger offense jumped on Southern Miss ace Ryan Belanger early and never let him settle into a rythm. Adam Amar jumpstarted the five-run second with a lined single through the left side and Michael Murray extended his hit streak to a career-long 12 games with a single to right centerfield in the next at-bat. Chris Kirkland then put Memphis on the board, bringing Amar home on a single up the middle. A single by K.K. Chalmers loaded the sacks for Bill Moss, who was plunked by a Belanger offering for a 2-0 Tiger advantage. Joey Lieberman highlighted the frame with a bases-clearing three-run double off the leftfield wall for the 5-0 lead.
Memphis never looked back behind the arm of Grisham, who cruised through five innings before striking out two in the sixth to work out of a slight jam. In the longest outing of his career, the Tiger senior held USM hitless through 2.2 innings before Brian Dozier broke up the no-hit bid with a single to right. Grisham struck out a career-high six hitters and scattered five hits en route to picking up his first win of the year. Chris South worked the ninth.
The Tiger used four Golden Eagles errors to plate a pair of runs in the eight and USM got on the board in the ninth on a sac fly by pinch hitter Jordan King.
The Tiger offense was led by Lieberman, who went 3-for-5 with three RBI. Kirkland also had three hits and scored two runs. Chalmers, Moss and Amar finished the night with two hits each. Dozier was the lone Southern Miss hitter with multiple base knocks.
Belanger was tagged with the loss after allowing a season-high five runs on 10 hits in six innings of work.
The two teams will hit the field for game two of the three-game set on Saturday with first pitch set for 2 p.m. at Nat Buring Stadium.
