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Tigers Play Two at UAPB; Host Weekend Tournament
Feb. 25, 2009
For Immediate Release MEMPHIS - The University of Memphis softball team travels on Thursday to play a midweek doubleheader at Arkansas-Pine Bluff at 2 and 4 p.m. The Tigers will then host its third annual Blues City Classic beginning Friday. The three-day, six-team tournament will also feature Belmont, Evansville, North Dakota, SEMO and UMKC. All 12 games in the tournament will be held at the Tiger Softball Complex. The Tigers (6-7) look to bounce back from a 1-4 showing at the K-Club Classic last week. Junior transfer Vanessa Walle leads the team in both pitching and hitting. Walle is 2-2 in the circle with a 1.75 ERA and 15 K's in 24 innings. At the plate, she is hitting .348 with five RBI and a .522 slugging percentage. Memphis is 1-0 all-time against Arkansas-Pine Bluff with the only meeting coming last year at the Blues City Classic. Memphis won the game 16-2 in five innings and had a 13-run second, which ranks tied for eighth all-time in the NCAA among most runs scored in an inning. The U of M hit three home runs in the game led by a pair from senior Leila Dolfo. The Tigers are 18-0 all-time against opponents from the Southwestern Atlantic Conference and are 2-0 on the year after sweeping a home doubleheader with Alcorn State. In the Blues City Classic, Memphis has finished second in the tournament the past two seasons. Last year, Memphis finished 3-1 behind tournament champion Morehead State (5-0). This will be the first time that all of the games in the tournament will be played at the U of M's Park Avenue stadium. In the previous two years, the games were played at Greenbrook Park in Southaven, Miss. Both Evansville and SEMO have appeared in every year of the tournament. Belmont, North Dakota and UMKC are new additions this year. The Tigers will open the tournament against UMKC on Friday at 1:30 p.m. and will then play North Dakota at 6:30 p.m. Saturday Memphis will host Belmont at 11:30 a.m. and Sunday the U of M will meet SEMO at 4:30 p.m. Memphis will be playing UMKC and North Dakota for the first time in the program's history. The Tigers are 3-1 all-time against Belmont and 4-2 against SEMO. Live stats are available for all six games this week through CBS College Sports GameTracker. In addition, free live streaming video of all the games in the Blues City Classic is available. Links can be found at GoTigersGo.com or on the Memphis Blues City Classic Tournament Page at http://gotigersgo.cstv.com/sports/w-softbl/spec-rel/mem-09-blues-classic.html.
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Memphis Tigers
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