Nov. 2, 2012

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Nearing the completion of team practices this fall, the University of Memphis baseball team begins the annual Garibaldi’s Series on Saturday at FedExPark.

Game one of the seven-game series is set for a 1:00 p.m. first pitch. “This is always a great way to finish our fall and have the roster split to see where the team is heading into the spring,” head coach Daron Schoenrock said. “We get to make some pitching moves for matchup purposes and how the pitchers function in the bullpen with a game on the line. Also, the offense gets the pressure of a seven-game series. I enjoy sitting back and evaluating where we are at taking some notes and let the coaching staff do the coaching. Our guys enjoy this series and there is no better way to end the fall.”

The Garibaldi’s Series features the Sausage (Blue) versus the Pepperoni (Gray) this season and the seven-game series will consume 13 calendar days. Game two is Sunday at 1 p.m. with both games one and two being nine-inning tilts. Game three is Wednesday, Nov. 7 at 3:45 p.m. followed by game four on Friday, Nov. 9 at 2:45 p.m. Games three and four will be seven inning games. Game five, a nine-inning game, is scheduled for Sunday, Nov. 11 at 1 p.m. and game six and seven are seven-inning games on Wednesday, Nov. 14 at 3:45 p.m. and Thursday, Nov. 15 at 4:00 p.m.

“We have a lot more depth this year on the pitching staff and that allows us to do the seven-game series,” Schoenrock said. “We have starters matched up for five of the seven games and six and seven will be determined later. We will have only one or two position players who will be playing out of position so we are going to get a true read of defensive ability of these guys at their positions.”

All games will be FREE and open to the public at FedExPark.

“I expect a lot of low scoring games in this series,” Schoenrock added. “Our pitching and defense are the strength of this team and the offensive will have to learn to exploit any weakness we see. If we see a weakness in the ability to hold the running game, we have to exploit that. If we see a weakness in the ability to pound the strike zone, we have to exploit that and take our walks. The offense is going to have to be very opportunistic this year and we have the guys to do that. When it all shakes out, I believe it is going to be an outstanding 2013 season.”

The divided rosters for the seven-game series are listed below.