Put Me in Coach, Time for Tiger Baseball

By: Tripp Vistica

March 1

After the first week of the season, the Memphis Tiger baseball team wishes their record of two wins and four losses was reversed. 

But the erratic weather and rain cancelations have made it difficult for the Tigers to get into a good routine with the normal game day on the field, said University of Memphis Head Coach, Daron Schoenrock.

“We’re still searching a little bit for some lineup moves we need to make,” Schoenrock said. “But all in all, the fight and the effort are there, so I think it will keep progressing as we go.”

“I think it’s just a matter of getting a few more guys going in the lineup, “Schoenrock said. “We just got to improve. What we’re chasing is quality at bats. We got about three or four of the guys that are giving us three or four good at bats a game.”

While the team has three or four players getting quality at bats, Schoenrock needs more players to step up and give the Tigers more quality at bats. 

“Sometimes you hit a ball hard and get nothing to show for it,” Schoenrock said. “If we can get the lineups where there’s six or seven guys that are giving us consistently good at bats, that’s what we’re shooting for.”

The Tigers are working on improving their lineups, from the batting order to the pitching rotation. The Preseason Coach’s Poll shows the University of Memphis are picked to finish last according to the poll from theamerican.org. Only eight out of the nine teams in the American Athletic Conference make it to the conference tournament. 

All in all, Schoenrock said he’s happy with how the pitching is coming together. “I think it’s just a matter of getting the lineup kind of functioning on all cylinders,” he said. “We’re getting closer. We’re just not there yet.”

Ben Brooks, University of Memphis Tigers’ second baseman, said warmer weather will help. “I think the warmer the weather gets, the easier it will be to hit. The bats will get on fire,” Brooks said.

“I feel like the past two games we really stung it well,” said Brooks. “Obviously, the last game some balls didn’t fall, but I thought for the most part we had some real quality at bats, and we’ll try to continue doing that throughout the season.”

Before conference play begins on March 22, the Tigers are figuring out what the player’s roles will be for the season. There is a lot of movement among the players in the starting lineup and in the pitching rotation, but Brooks said players are starting to step into their roles. 

“It’s still young. We’re still six games into the year, but I realized a lot of guys are starting to figure it out,” said Brooks. “So, I think we’ll get this thing figured out pretty soon and turn this thing around.”

With nine seniors on the team, the team has experience. They are strong in the field and take pride in their defense. However, the team is still figuring out its pitching rotation, said Curtis Hart, a professor at the University of Memphis who teaches the course Baseball in America. “We have a good number of seniors and experience at key positions, but the pitching could be better in the early innings,” Hart said.