Baseball Heads To Bluff City For Midweek Matchup With Memphis
MEMPHIS, Tenn. – The Mississippi Valley State University baseball program will make the short bus ride north to FedExPark on Tuesday evening to tangle with the Tigers of the University of Memphis at 6 p.m. in a non-conference tilt.
Records: Mississippi Valley State (10-17-1, 3-10 SWAC) | Memphis (18-18, 4-8 American)
Location: Memphis, Tennessee – FedExPark Avron Fogelman Field
Series History: Memphis Leads 8-1
Last Meetings: March 12, 2019 | Memphis, Tennessee (FedExPark Avron Fogelman Field | Memphis won 8-1
Winning Streak: Memphis (W5) | Mississippi Valley State’s Last Win: March 30, 2011 (3-2)
Mississippi Valley State Overview
Valley State is looking for its first victory over the Tigers in 11 seasons and fundamentals will play a big role as they are fifth in the SWAC for double plays turned per game (0.61) and 11th in the country regarding stolen bases on average (2.18).
The Devils have four different players with streaks over a dozen games, as Angel Perez (6), Maury Weaver (9), and Jose Salazar-Ortega (9) are of the on-base variety while Jan Tolentino string that has been on the hit side, smacking a base knock in seven straight.
Davon Mims has put on a hitting clinic this season, leading the club in multi-hit outings with ten and Dreylin Holmes has been the king of multi-RBI performances, recording six such occasions with none of those being less than three runs batted in.
Scouting The Opponent: Memphis Tigers
U of M has been a .500 ball club through 36 contests (18-18), going 4-8 in the American Athletic Conference and 1-0 versus HBCU’s, beating Alabama A&M on March 1, 5-3.
The Blue and White Bengals are a top-50 program nationally in doubles per game (2.14) plus K/9 (9.8), placing just outside that ranking for fielding percentage (.974).
Landon Gartman has been fantastic at starting the game with a H/9 of 6.19 while Dalton Kendrick locks down tight contests in the final frames, securing seven saves and striking out 11 batters per nine innings.
The Tigers of Memphis deploy four hitters with batting averages in the threes led by Ian Bibiloni (.321) followed by Chris Swanberg (.315), Blake Daniels (.310), and Logan Kohler (.306) as Jacob Compton provides the power with a team-high seven bombs.
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