May 8, 2006

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Memphis Baseball Hits the Road for Final Road Stretch of the Year

The University of Memphis baseball team will begin its final road swing of the year--a six-game road trip that kicks off with a two-game set at Middle Tennessee on Tuesday and Wednesday. Both games are slated for a 7 p.m. first pitch. Memphis will then head to Orlando, Fla. to take on UCF in a critical Conference USA series, May 12-14, before wrapping up the road swing with the series finale with Ole Miss in Oxford, Miss. on May 16.

Scouting the Blue Raiders

Middle comes into the midweek series with a 24-18 record and winners of its last seven games. The Blue Raiders took a 2-1 series win over Florida International in Sun Belt action last weekend, but lost the series finale to break a string of six-straight wins. MT is 15-4 at home this year and has won six-straight at Reese Smith Field.

Middle Tennessee is hitting a blistering .328 as a team and was ranked 20th in the latest NCAA statistical report. The Blue Raiders have lined out 91 doubles and hit 56 home runs. Michael McKenry leads the potent offense with a .400 average. The junior backstop was ranked 39th in last week's NCAA stats. He paces the Blue Raiders with 56 RBI, a .731 slugging percentage and is one of two players with double-digit home runs numbers with 12. Jeff Beachum, who is second on the squad with a .391 average at the plate, has a team-high 75 hits and leads the way with 13 doubles. Beachum leads the team with 10 stolen bases. Todd Martin hits .342 and has 14 round-trippers to go with 48 RBI. Seven MT regulars have batting averages over .300.

On the mound, Middle is led by ace Matt Scott, who is 7-1 with a 2.97 ERA and a staff-best 41 strikeouts. The staff has a 5.41 ERA and opposing hitters have been successful, hitting .311 against them. Tyler Copeland is second with a 6-2 record and a 3.52 ERA. Tuesday's starter, Peter Mantzanis has seen limited action, but has been effective with a 1-0 record and a 3.38 ERA in six appearances. He has fanned six in 13.1 innings of work. Jeff Kasser will toe the mound for the Blue Raiders in the finale. Kasser is 2-1, with a 6.19 ERA. He has struck out 13, but opposing hitters have hit .339 against him.

The Series

This week's meetings with Middle Tennessee will be the 63rd and 64th meetings between the two schools. Memphis holds a 34-29 (.540) advantage in the all-time series. The Tigers snapped a six-game losing streak to MT with the two wins earlier this year.

Series Notes **Memphis senior backup catcher John Peterson is the son of Middle Tennessee head coach Steve Peterson. Father, Steve has a 3-2 advantage over John.

**The Blue Raiders homered a single-game record nine times, including six times in the sixth inning, in last year's final meeting between the two schools on April 20.

The Last Meeting Memphis 11, Middle Tennessee 5

Memphis raced to a sweep of Middle Tennessee on March 7-8. The Tiger offense exploded for nine runs in the first two innings of play, while junior lefthander Lance Scoggins struck out six and scattered seven hits in six innings to claim an 11-5 win over Blue Raiders in the opener. The win snapped a six-game losing streak to the Blue Raiders and improves the Tigers to 7-3.

Memphis 8, Middle Tennessee 3

Joseph Lieberman and Ben Grisham hit back-to-back home runs to fuel a three-run third inning, as the Tigers claimed its third-straight win with an 8-3 victory over Middle Tennessee the following afternoon.

Tiger Stripes

Memphis won its series opener against UAB before dropping a Saturday doubleheader to the Blazers. The 1-2 weekend dropped the Tigers to 7-11 in Conference USA play, tied with East Carolina for fifth place. Freshman righthander Scott McGregor picked up his team-leading fifth win of the season on Friday night, striking out five UAB batters. Junior second baseman Bill Moss had a productive weekend, hitting .500 in 10 at-bats. He hit his fourth home run of the year in the series-opening win on Friday night. He posted multiple hits in each of the first two games of the series. Junior Adam Amar continues to climb the U of M career RBI ladder. The Tiger first baseman drove in six runs over the weekend to give him 48 on the year and move into seventh on the all-time RBI list with 143. He hit safely and drove in multiple RBI in two of the three weekend games. Sophomore centerfielder K.K. Chalmers added a pair of stolen bases against UAB to improve to 33-of-35 on the year. He is now ranked fourth on the school's single-season and career (52) lists for stolen bases.

Memphis will send Lance Scoggins to the hill on Tuesday. The lefty picked up a win against MT earlier this year. In nine starts, the Bolton High product has a 5.80 ERA and 29 strikeouts in 40.1 innings. Josh Langley will toe the rubber on Wednesday for his first start as a Tiger. He has seen appearances out of the bullpen and has been successful, logging a 1-1 record and a 4.30 ERA. He has one of Memphis' seven saves and has help opponents to .281 hitting.

Down The Stretch They Come

With just nine regular-season games left, and possibly at least two Conference USA Tournament contests, the Tigers are 24-23. Memphis must win six of those 11 games to ensure a winning finish. Six wins would put Memphis at the 30-win mark and secure at least a 30-28 season. The Tigers have not posted 30 wins since the 2001 season.

Memphis-Middle Tennessee Stat Comparison
Category        Memphis    MT
Average         .306       .328
Hits            524        504
Runs            336        340
Doubles         101        91
Home Runs       45         56
RBI             309        321
Strikeouts      344        268
Stolen Bases    72-95      45-63
ERA             5.75       5.41

Last Time Out

Memphis fell victim to two solid pitching performances from UAB's Jim Crew, in game one, and Drew Murray in game two, as the Tigers were swept by the Blazers. Memphis dropped its third-straight Conference USA series, two-games-to-one. The Blazers defeated the Tigers 6-2 in the opener and raced to a 9-4 win in the twinbill.

Memphis could muster little more offense than a home run by Will Petersen in the third inning. Petersen's seventh homer of the year put the Tigers ahead 1-0, but UAB then plated the game's next five runs.

Tiger starter Philip Utley was the hard-luck loser, giving up seven hits and fanning two in seven innings.

For the second consecutive game UAB outhit Memphis. Lieberman was the lone Tiger hitter to record at least two hits.

In game two, Murray no-hit the Tigers through 5.1 innings, and finished with five strikeouts in 7.1 innings. He walked six and allowed just two hits--a single by Josh Irvin, that broke up the no-hit bid and a single by Chris Newsom in the eighth inning. Memphis had just three hits in the nightcap.

Murray held the U of M offense in check while his offense racked up big numbers en route to a convincing win.

On Deck

The Tigers will continue the six-game road trip this weekend when the troops head south to Orlando, Fla. for a C-USA weekend vs. newcomer UCF. The Golden Knights are tied with UAB at the bottom of the league standings with a 5-13 conference mark. The Tigers are tied for fifth at 7-11.