Raiders Beat Memphis For Second Straight Day

Wednesday, March 11

Murfreesboro, TN

3 PM

Middle Tennessee

7-10

Memphis

10-7

Memphis

Middle Tennessee

3/11/2020 7:25:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

By: Josh Vardaman

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — Middle Tennessee continued its efficient pace against Memphis Wednesday in preparation for the first Conference USA series of the season.

A day after taking down the Tigers 6-1 with only five hits, the Blue Raiders (7-10) registered only two hits, both for extra bases, but dominated the Memphis (10-7) lineup in a 2-1 victory. The win makes MT 6-1 at home this season.

"I don't know where the bats went the last two days, but it's two wins against a good team in the middle of the week," Middle Tennessee head coach Jim Toman said. "Overall, when you win two in the mid-week, you have to be happy."

Working with a pitcher-by-committee approach on low pitch counts to get ready for the first C-USA series of the season this weekend at LA Tech, MT used five pitchers to mow down the Tiger lineup for the second straight day.

Freshman Jack Julian got the first start of his collegiate career and pitched an efficient 2.2 innings, only giving up a hit and a walk and striking out a pair. He faced 10 batters.

Junior Zach Keenan was the first man up in relief and had to pitch around a 55-minute rain delay in his 2.1 innings, allowing two hits and striking out one. He only threw 22 pitches, including 19 strikes, and earned the win.

Fellow junior Adam Link then kept the Tigers off the board for 2.1 innings, and redshirt sophomore Josh Young polished off the eighth inning before Hunter Sullivan came in to close things out in the ninth. Sullivan allowed a solo home run but got the save, stranding men on first and second.

"It was good to see Jack Julian early on, a freshman, be very aggressive and pitch well," Toman said. "We snuck out of it there in the ninth and struck out the side."

The dominant pitching performance meant the Blue Raiders didn't need to do much offensively to get the victory.

Sullivan drove in the home team's first run in the bottom of the third inning immediately following the rain delay. Cole Escher walked then swiped second on a wild pitch, and Sullivan hit a double that was just fair in left field.

Junior first baseman Brycen Thomas added an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth with his team-leading third home run of the season, a no-doubter to left.

"I was happy to see Sullivan hit one of the wall backside and Thomas hit one out," Toman said. "The idea is to score more runs than the other team, and we did it two times in a row with a total of [seven] hits in two games. That doesn't happen often."

The back-to-back wins over the Tigers send MT into conference play on a roll.

The Blue Raiders will travel to Jackson, Mississippi to take on LA Tech starting Friday at 3 p.m. They'll return home on Tuesday as another in-state foe, Tennessee Tech, makes the short trip from Cookeville to Reese Smith Jr. Field.

"I think we're feeling ok, especially knowing we've played a really good schedule," Toman said. "We're very well-prepared going into this weekend."