Baseball preview

The University of Memphis Tigers started their first official practice Friday. The Tigers will open the season February 15th at FedEx Park in a three game series versus Illinois State.

This season the Tigers will take on four SEC opponents, a three game home series against Missouri starting on February 22. Memphis will travel 90 miles south to take on Ole Miss for one game on February 26. Ole Miss will return the trip to Memphis on April 2 for a game at beautiful Auto Zone Park. Alabama will play host to Memphis for a mid-week two game series on March 12&13.

Memphis will also host Mississippi State April 23 for their second Auto Zone Park game of the season. Other games of note are traditional conference powers Rice and Tulane as well as the defending C-USA defending champions UAB. All three of those teams will be road games for the Tigers.

Memphis will also take on three in-state foes in MTSU, UT Martin, and Austin Peay. Memphis will travel to Martin on March 19 for a single game. Memphis will host MTSU for a two game series on March 26&27 and Austin Peay in a single on May 14.

This will be Coach Daron Schoenrock's ninth season as the head coach of the Tigers. Memphis is coming off a 31-28 season that included wins over Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Rice, and Tulane as well as a second place finish in the C-USA tournament. Another note of interest, Memphis swept the regular season series against C-USA champions UAB.

Memphis loses four starters from the lineup. Eli Hynes (DH), Jacob Wilson (3B), TJ Rich (1B), and Adam McClain (LF). Memphis also loses starting pitcher Chase Joiner as well as Tyler Farley and Patrick Bailey from the bullpen.

New Editions to this years Tiger squad are Colin Lee (P) Houston High School, Connor Mahoney (P) Germantown High School, Jake Little (UTI) Columbia Community College, Corey Chafin (C) Houston High School, Michael Silliman (1B) Briarcrest High School, Drew Allen (2B-SS) Walters State Community College, Jon Reed (P) Walters State Community College, and Cameron Porter (P) Olney Community College.