University of Memphis baseball team (5-3) opens up their third weekend series of the season starting on Friday, as the Western Illinois Fighting Leathernecks (0-6) come to FedEx Park.
The Tigers have turned their early season around in a hurry as they are riding a four-game winning streak, all coming from home games.
Memphis Tigers
Memphis baseball are in a hot inferno right now on the offensive end. The bats were really there the past two games as the Tigers had a nine-run game and an eight-run game both victories.
The Preseason All-American, Hunter Goodman, has finally found his game as of late. He started the season at a batting average of .333, but then took a big dip to .273 percent during the losing streak. Goodman has changed that within the winning streak, and it is nearly back to what he has to start the season at .323 percent.
Goodman has four RBI in the last two games and a home run, but he is not alone as Memphis junior infielder, Ben Brooks, has been the hot guy at the plate.
Brooks has gone 6-for-8 at the plate in his last game. He bats at a team-high .448 percent with three long balls on the season. He is slugging at a team high of .862 percent as well as 11 RBI on the season.
The offense is clearly going through Goodman and Brooks so far this season, but if the Tigers can get two more bats pooping than this program can really make some noise.
Pitching for the Tigers has been good but there have been some mishaps throughout the beginning of the season. Senior right-hand pitcher (RHP), Takoda Metoxen, has been great. He has 11 total strikeouts on the team and also collected his first save of the season in the last game against Central Arkansas. Metoxen had a two-strikeout inning in the 9th versus the Bears.
Memphis will continue to build all the way around from batting to pitching and fielding.
Western Illinois
The Western Illinois Fighting Leathernecks have really had a season where they will like to turn things around.
They are winless so far this year and in their first series of the season, the Leathernecks were destroyed against the Volunteers of Tennessee on multiple occasions. One score was 23-4 and the other was 19-0.
The Leathernecks have surrendered 63 total runs all season while they have gained just 11. This has not been a great start for WIU Head Coach, Andy Pascoe, and his team.
The only thing great about their team besides their name (Leathernecks is a cool name) is freshman catcher, Jayden Gibson.
Gibson has the team’s leading batting average at .333 percent. But that is all he has so far this season has he has no RBI or homeruns. He does have one run scored.
Besides the freshman, WIU does have a redshirt junior who has been a bright spot in Alex Dorethy. Dorethy is only batting at a .227 percent but he does have five hits, three RBI and two homeruns on the season. He has shown he can be the offense but five hits at 22 at-bats is not going to get it done.
Others on the Leathernecks have a similar plate appearance record like Dorethy. Luke Schwartz and Drue Galassi both have started every game this year and both have two hits but on 20-plus at-bat appearances.
This team is in serious need of offense, and they need it fast.
Overall
Memphis has an easy sweep potential heading into the weekend. WIU pitchers have been awful to start the season and Memphis has bats that are steaming hot right now.
The boys in blue will need to keep in mind that WIU will play desperate to seek out their first win on the season. The Tigers will need to play with discipline, but also attack WIU with all their weapons.
The series will start on Friday at 4 p.m. and will go on to Saturday at 2 p.m. and conclude on Sunday at 1 p.m.
Hunter Goodman on third base ready to make the run. Goodman is second on the team with a .323 batting average in a recent surge.
Takoda Metoxen after pitching a strike against the UCA Bears on Feb. 25, 2020.
