April 20, 2007

Box Score

Marshall at Memphis Box Score
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MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Marshall held Memphis scoreless through the last four innings, but the Tigers' early runs held up as Memphis hung on for a 5-3 win over the Thundering Herd baseball team in a Conference USA clash at Nat Buring Stadium on Friday.

Memphis improves to 25-14 and 9-4 in C-USA play, while Marshall falls to 14-21 and 0-9 in league action.

The Herd, down 5-1 entering the seventh inning, scored a run in each of the seventh and eighth innings to close to within two runs, but couldn't overcome the Tigers in its first visit to Memphis.

The Tigers, on the heels of a 13-run outing on Wednesday at Austin Peay, wasted no time getting their offense going in the opening game of the series. Shortstop Michael Murray, the 2006 National Junior College Player of the Year, hit a double down the left field line in the bottom of the first. Then, with two outs, designated hitter Joey Lieberman homered to left just over the out-stretched glove of left fielder Jeff Rowley (Buffalo, N.Y.) for a quick 2-0 Memphis lead.

Rowley extended his team-best hitting streak to eight games with a single in the top of inning, but a Brendan Murphy (Chattanooga, Tenn.) double-play ball ended Marshall's initial at bat.

Marshall third baseman Blake Sanders (Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.) drew a leadoff walk in the top of the third and later scored thanks to a pair of sacrifices and a single. Nick Damas (Willow Springs, Ill.) bunted Sanders over to third, then Brit Vincent (Bowling Green, Ky.) singled through the left side to move the freshman to third base. Rowley then lifted a sacrifice fly to left for his 15th RBI of the season to cut the Herd deficit to 2-1.

Lieberman was at it again in the bottom of the third, singling to right center to plate K.K. Chalmers, who led off the inning with a hit by pitch. Second baseman Bill Moss, who reached on a walk, tagged up from third base on a fly ball to right field that didn't appear to be deep enough for such base running, especially with the good arm of right fielder Nate Lape (Huntington, N.Y.). Lape, however, engaged in a feet-first slide after the shallow fly that allowed Moss to gamble and score on the Kyle Norrid fly ball to give Memphis a 4-1 advantage.

In the fourth, Marshall starter Brian Chrisman (Pittsburgh, Pa.) recorded two quick outs but then found trouble thanks in part to a pair of errors. He allowed a single to the speedy Chalmers, then threw the ball away trying to keep the C-USA stolen base leader close to the bag. The deep foul territory at Nat Buring Stadium kept the ball rolling and allowed Chalmers to advance to third.

The throwing error did not stifle Chrisman as the left-hander composed himself to induce a potential inning-ending groundball to shortstop. Brandon Casamassima (Colleyville, Texas), however, muffed the grounder to allow Chalmers to score. Chrisman yielded another single to the next hitter, but struck out the hot-hitting Lieberman looking to end the threat with the Tigers up 5-1.

Marshall made it a 5-2 game in the seventh thanks to a pair of back-to-back, two-out singles by Damas and Vincent. After going first to third on Vincent's single, Damas scored on a passed ball, the first of two in the inning on catcher Chris Kirkland. Memphis starter Ben Grishman issued a walk to put runners on first and third, but the right-hander got a fielder's choice groundout by Murphy to get out of the jam.

The Marshall defense came up big in the bottom of the seventh. Memphis shortstop Michael Murray attempted to steal third base, but catcher Tommy Johnson (Gaithersburg, Md.) threw out Murray to pick up a big out with Lieberman at the plate. Chrisman got Lieberman to fly out to deep left field to end the inning with the Herd still down three runs.

After making a great defensive play, Johnson put together a quality at bat with two outs in MU's next at bat in the eighth. Casamassima singled to leadoff the inning, but the next two Herd hitters were retired. Johnson came to the plate and battled Grishman in a nine-pitch at bat that ended with a RBI single past the diving Moss at second to trim MU's deficit to 5-3.

Johnson would be the last hitter Grishman would face as reliever Matt Yokley entered the game and produced a flyout by Sanders to end the inning.

Chrisman's night would end in the eighth as head coach Jeff Waggoner wanted the right-hander versus right-hander matchup with Will Petersen stepping to the plate with a runner on second and one out. Andrew Hancock (Ashland, Ky.) got Petersen to flyout to center before Waggoner made another pitching matchup move to bring in left-hander Andrew Blain (Huntington, W.Va.). Blain walked Josh Irvin, but then struck out Kirkland on a 3-2 pitch to keep Marshall within striking distance heading into the ninth.

Chrisman (3-5) went 7 1/3 innings, giving up 10 hits, four earned runs, and a walk with five strikeouts.

Damas led off the ninth with a chopper single to shortstop, beating out Murray's throw from deep in the hole. Vincent struck out looking at a Yokley 1-2 offering, bringing up the hot-hitting Rowley. Damas stole second during Rowley's at bat, which ended in a walk to bring up Murphy, the potential go-ahead run. Murphy advanced the runners on a 143 putout, but, with two outs, Yokley struck out Casamassima to end the game.

"The guys played hard, but the errors, walks and lack of timely hitting has hurt us all year long," Waggoner said. "We've made some changes in the field and in the lineup and we're getting better."

Rowley went 2-for-2 with an RBI and Damas went 3-for-3 with a run scored for the Herd. The Tigers' had three hitters register two hits apiece, with Lieberman's 2-for-4 night accompanied by three RBI.

Grishman (3-1) picked up the win after 7 2/3 innings of work with 10 hits surrendered and two earned runs. He struck out six and walked two batters.

Vincent and Murphy, former teammates at Southwest Tennessee C.C. in Memphis before transferring to Marshall, made their return to the city on Friday. Each recorded a hit in their returns, with Vincent going 2-for-5.

While at SWTCC, Vincent and Murphy were named to the Tennessee Baseball Coaches Association All-Tennessee Junior and Community Collage Athletic Association first and second team, respectively.

The Herd and Tigers will play game two of the series on Saturday at 3 p.m. ET.