Baseball Travels to Memphis for Final Regular-Season Weekend
May 13, 2015 | Baseball
NEW ORLEANS - Tulane baseball will look to position themselves favorably in The American Baseball Championships with a solid weekend series against Memphis at FedExPark, beginning on Thursday, May 14, at 6:30pm CT, in what will be the final regular-season series of the season.
Game two of the series against the Tigers will be at 6:30pm CT on Friday, May 15. The regular season for both teams will wrap up on Saturday, May 16, at 1pm CT. All three games can be heard on 88.3 FM WRBH, and live streaming audio and video will be made available to paid members of the Tulane All-Access Pass at TulaneGreenWave.com.
Both teams are coming off late evenings on Tuesday, as the Green Wave fell to Southern Miss, 8-4, at Greer Field at Turchin Stadium, while Memphis dodged a bullet in a 16-inning, 2-1 win at UT-Martin. Both teams will be looking to raise their national profile while also earning a high seed in the conference tournament with a strong weekend.
Overall, Tulane sits at 31-20 on the year, while Memphis is 34-17. Tulane and Memphis, along with USF and UConn, are tied for third in The American standings.
Despite falling to the Golden Eagles on Tuesday night, Tulane outhit their opponent, 10-8. In their last 10 games, the Green Wave are hitting .255, led by sophomores Jake Willsey (.344) and Stephen Alemais (.326). Tulane owns 23 extra-base hits in those 10 games, including 15 doubles. Alemais and fellow sophomore Lex Kaplan pace the team with three each in the last 10 contests, while senior Tyler Wilson's two home runs lead the squad.
Memphis enters the weekend with a team batting average of .276. Kane Barrow tops the charts with a .333 average, but the Tigers' heaviest hitter is Tucker Tubbs, who is second on the team in hitting with a .323 average while leading the club with 16 homers and 52 RBI. Two other batters in Darien Tubbs (.322) and Zach Schritenthal (.300) are hitting above the team average.
The Green Wave will roll out the same three righties used this past weekend against USF in Corey Merrill (4-4, 1.74 ERA, 73 Ks), Alex Massey (5-3, 3.47 ERA, 60 Ks) and Emerson Gibbs (4-2, 2.94 ERA, 49 Ks) on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, respectively. Merrill continues to lead the league in ERA while tying for fourth in the league with a .216 batting average against.
Memphis will send out southpaw Alex Gunn (5-1, 3.38 ERA, 27 Ks) on Thursday night before throwing back-to-back righties in Dylan Toscano (8-2, 3.01 ERA, 66 Ks) and Connor Alexander (4-1, 2.64 ERA, 56 Ks) on Friday and Saturday, respectively. Batters are only hitting .218 off Toscano, and the righty is tied for third in the conference with eight wins.
Tulane is 49-37, all-time, against Memphis. The two teams have not faced one another since 2013, when both were members of Conference USA. Memphis defeated the Green Wave 16-0 on Saturday, March 23, but Tulane won the series by winning 6-4 on Friday, March 22 and 3-2 on Sunday, March 24.
After the dust settles from the weekend, The American Athletic Conference will post their bracket for The American Baseball Championships, to be held in Clearwater, Florida, from May 19-24 at Bright House Field, the spring training site of the Philadelphia Phillies.
Tickets to any home Tulane baseball game, or any other Green Wave sporting event, can be purchased by calling 504-861-WAVE (9283). Tickets can also be purchased by visiting the James W. Wilson, Jr. Center's first floor ticket office.
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