The Memphis Tigers and Florida Atlantic Owls went toe-to-toe tonight to start a three game conference series. The Tigers bested the Owls 2-1 behind a pitching gem from David Warren.
Warren pitched 7.1 innings, and during that threw 10 strikeouts and only 4 hits and 1 earned run. 7.1 innings pitched and 10 k’s are both career highs for the senior pitcher. Matt Riser had a high praise for Warren postgame, “Its gotta be the best outing of his career.”
Warren also spoke highly of himself. When asked when he felt like tonight was going to be a good night for him, he kept his response short “When I came out honestly.”
The Tigers only scored in the second inning after a Pierre Seals solo homerun to left center. Then after a Jake Curtis double, Brennan DuBose doubled himself to drive in another run. The two runs proving all they needed.
The Owls would try to threaten the Tigers lead as Andrew Mckenna hit a lead off homerun to make it 2-1 in the fourth.
The Owls got bases loaded in the eighth inning, but would end up lining out and leaving three baserunners on. The Tigers also had the bases loaded in the eighth but also were not able to do anything with it.
Brayden Sanders came in to pitch in the eighth for the Tigers and picked up where Warren left. He was the one that got them out of the bases loaded jam in the eighth, and would have to do it again in the top of the ninth.
With the bags full for the Owls Dalton Frank worked a full count against Sanders. Having to throw a strike, Sanders did just that, striking out Frank to end the game and secure the victory. Sanders spoke about the play after the game “I don’t want a lot going through my mind, it was just another pitch for me. 3-2, I was going to attack him with my best stuff.”
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The Tigers continue their homestand against the Owls tomorrow night with first pitch at 6 P.M. The game will also be streaming on ESPN+.
Tough start into the week for the Memphis Tigers. Their late game surge was not enough to down the Lipscomb Bisons.
The Bisons showed up early as the first hit of the game directly went out of the ballpark for a one-run home run. This would be the only highlight in the first innings as both teams remained quiet for the second. After the Tigers changed pitcher to Seth Garner, Lipscomb was able to drive in two more runs in the third inning.
The Tigers, on the other hand, had a horrible offensive showing on the day. Until the bottom of the seventh inning, no runs were scored while the Bisons could rotate through four different pitchers without any effect. Coach Riser was disappointed with the offensive showing of his team.
“We pitched well enough to win a ball game today,” said Riser. “We got to be better offensively.”
Memphis Tiger Will Marcy gets hit by a pitch. Photo: Florian Krempel
Lipscomb continued the onslaught and increased the lead to 6-0. Then, the Tigers seemed to wake up. Will Marcy and Seth Cox made the score 6-2 with two runs.
The eigth inning could have been the turning point of the game as Memphis loaded the bases with no outs but could only cash in two runs from that. A sequence that frustrated coach Riser.
“We are not bringing guys in that are in scoring positions, real simple,” said Riser. “We got to be better.”
The Lipscomb Bisons on their way to scoring. Photo: Florian Krempel
Coach Riser also complained about the lack of mental toughness in the team. He says that the team will need that, because their opponents in the second half will force them to play at a higher level.
“The second half of the season is a meat grinder. You got to go out and play good baseball now to win games,” said coach Riser after the game.
A chance to play good baseball is waiting just around the corner, as the Memphis Tigers next opponent is a conference rival in FAU. Coach Riser promised to not go easy on the team with a tougher schedule fast approaching.
“This is not gonna be sunshine and rainbow and butterflies for the rest of the way out,” said Riser. “I am gonna ride them and I am gonna ride them hard, cause I expect more out of them.”
Their next game this week will be at 6pm on Thursday, where the Tigers look to get back in the win column after two losses in a row.
The new season does not only bring a new head coach in Matt Riser and new players for the Memphis Tigers. The 2024 season features a completely overhauled American Athletic Conference. Three teams have left the conference and a whopping five new teams have joined. What does that mean for the new season for the Memphis Tigers?
Which teams left the AAC?
In total, three teams have left the AAC for the new season: Central Florida, Houston and Cincinnati. All of them found their new home in the Big 12 conference.
The Houston Cougars had the most success of those three teams, as they finished the last season second in the conference. They won 17 conference games, only one less than the conference champions, East Carolina. In the AAC tournament they went on to eliminate the Memphis Tigers and fell short to the later conference champion, Tulane.
The University of Central Florida finished the regular season as the four seed with a balanced 12-12 record. After that, the Knights went on to beat Cincinnati in the first round of the AAC tournament, but would ultimately lose to their in-state rivals from South Florida.
The Cincinnati Bearcats finished the season as the worst of the three leavers. A 10-14 conference record meant the same number of wins as the Memphis Tigers, earning them the fifth seed. Their tournament ended with a first round loss to UCF.
All of the three leaving teams finished the 2023 season as a higher seed than the Tigers. Houston even ended their AAC tournament hopes, as they beat them in a close 6-5 contest in the second round.
Where are the new teams in the AAC from? A map of the five teams and their location.
Which new teams have joined the AAC?
Austin Baskin, going into his fourth year with the Tigers, commented before the season about the the changes: “They are bringing in a lot of new teams into the conference this year, but, I think, we have got a really good chance to be competitive this year.”
A lot of new teams indeed, as five new teams feature in the new AAC season. All of them are coming from the same conference—Conference USA. Namely, the UAB Blazers from Alabama, the Owls from Florida Atlantic University, the Charlotte 49ers, the Rice University Owls and the UTSA Roadrunners from San Antonio in Texas.
Charlotte was last year’s Conference USA champion, and they will be a featured team in the new AAC season. The 49ers beat Dallas Baptist in the C-USA tournament final to secure their spot in the NCAA tournament.
However, they lost their regional against the University of Tennessee, eliminating them in the first round. Still, the Charlotte 49ers will be poised to repeat their success in the new conference.
Not as successful in the tournament, but better than the 49ers in the regular season last year, were the Roadrunners from San Antonio. UTSA finished the season with a 38-19 record, second only to the conference-winning Dallas Baptist. Their season, however, came to an abrupt end as Charlotte blew them out 11-2 in the first round of the C-USA tournament.
Florida Atlantic finished the season with a positive record of 34-24, good enough for the five seed in the conference. They then went on to beat Rice in the first round, but fell short in the second round to Western Kentucky.
Last, but not least, there are the two teams from Rice University and the University of Alabama, Birmingham. Both had an underwhelming season, finishing as the eighth seed in the case of Rice and tenth and dead last in the case of UAB. Rice went on to exit in the first round of the C-USA tournament, and UAB did not even make a tournament appearance. Both teams will be poised to improve their performance in this season.
Memphis Tigers’ Brennan DuBose said in his press conference before the season that he is looking forward to the new challenges: “The road games are great experiences – getting to see some of the coolest places in college baseball playing at the highest level. We want to play the top teams and we have the ability to compete with everybody”.
What can we expect from the new teams?
With the first games of the new season already in the books, some early trends for the new teams are showing. Florida Atlantic (6-5) and Charlotte (7-6) are keeping their record positive after the first few games.
UTSA’s record hangs in the balance with 6-6 and the two bottom teams from last season are off to bad start once again as they sit at the bottom of the conference: UAB with 5-6 and the Rice Owls with 4-8.
In the coaches poll before the season three of the five new teams were picked to be in the top four of the conference this season. With East Carolina picked to getting their fifth straight regular season title, Charlotte, UTSA and Florida Atlantic were selected as the second, third and fourth seed. Not surprisingly, Rice was picked for the eighth seed, and UAB was once again projected to finish last.
Memphis head coach Matt Riser predicts a rise in the quality of the AAC this season.
“FAU has been in the regional for six of the last nine years, UTSA was in the top 25 for a few weeks last season and Charlotte was in a regional final last year,” he said. “It is a three or a four-bid league when it is all said and done.”
When do the Tigers play their new opponents?
The first series against a new conference opponent for the Memphis Tigers will not be played until the end of March. Beginning on March, 28th the Tigers will host Florida Atlantic University in their first conference matchup in a three-game-series. One week after that, coach Riser’s team will travel to Houston to face the Rice Owls for another three games starting April 5. The next two weekends will also feature new opponents for the Tigers as they host UTSA starting April 12 and travel to Charlotte for the start of the series on April 19.
The projected worst team of the five will also be the last new team Memphis faces: The Tigers will travel to Birmingham, Alabama on May, 10th to start their three-game-series against UAB.
The team, however, does not seem to be phased by the new opponents: Junior Aaron Smigelski said that they are not thinking ahead right now: “For us it is just taking each game at a time. We always try to get the job done in the next game.”
The new AAC season promises to be an interesting one for the Memphis Tigers, with three teams that all finished above them leaving. However, from the five teams joining, three are projected to finish above the Tigers in the new season. The end of March and the month of April will show how well coach Riser’s team will stack up against their new opponents.
The Tigerpen 