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Softball Closes Season with Six-Game Home Stand Beginning with UCF
April 23, 2009
For Immediate Release MEMPHIS - The University of Memphis softball team closes out the 2009 regular season with a six-game home stand, beginning with a three-game series against UCF on Friday and Saturday at the Tiger Softball Complex. The two teams will play a single game on Friday at 6 p.m. and finish with a doubleheader on Saturday at 12 and 2 p.m. The five Memphis seniors will be honored with a ceremony before Saturday's games. Leila Dolfo, Brittany Gooch, Tori Gross, Leandra Hines and Lyndsey Sterling represent the first four-year senior class in the U of M softball program's history. Nearly every Memphis record has been established by this year's seniors, setting the bar for future Tigers to follow. All five seniors began their career with Memphis in the school's inaugural softball season in 2006. UCF (23-24, 7-10 C-USA) leads the all-time series against Memphis, 5-4. Last year the Knights posted a three-game sweep over the Tigers in Orlando. Two years ago during the 2007 season when only the top six teams made the conference tournament, Memphis needed to win all six of its final games at home to gain admittance into the postseason. One loss would eliminate the team from any chance of moving on. The Tigers lived up to the challenge and won all six games against UCF and UAB. All six games were decided by a run and two went a program record 11 innings. Once again Memphis closes the season at home against the same two teams it swept in 2007 the end the year. However, this time the Tigers aren't playing to get into the tournament since all nine league members are now invited. This year, Memphis will be playing to improve its seeding. The U of M is currently in last place in the conference with a 5-13 league mark and 20-25 overall record. But only three wins separate the ninth to fifth position. UCF is in seventh place at 7-10 and the team Memphis will play next to end the year, UAB, is in eighth place at 6-15. Memphis will use the next six games to attempt to gain at least a coveted seventh place seeding. A finish of seventh or higher omits the team from having to compete in the play-in game between the eighth and ninth seeds. Last week, Memphis split its final midweek doubleheader of the season with two 2-1 games against Samford. The U of M then was swept in a three-game conference series at East Carolina. All three games against UCF can be followed through live stats provided by CBS College Sports GameTracker. Live video with play-by-play called by Dan O'Brien and Andrew Vandeventer is also available to All-Access subscribers. Links to the live broadcasts can be found at GoTigersGo.com.
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Memphis Tigers
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