The University of Memphis baseball team started its season with a bang — literally.
David C. Minkin
Junior college transfer Eli Hynes is met at home plate by his teammates after he hit a grand slam on the first at-bat of his career at The University of Memphis. The Tigers swept Evansville in a 3-game series last weekend.
In the first inning of the first game with Evansville (Ind.) of a three-game series, junior college transfer Eli Hynes stepped up to the plate with the bases loaded and, in his first-ever at-bat as a Tiger, hit the first pitch he saw from Evansville starter Sam Johns over the right-field fence for a grand slam.
Memphis jumped out to a 4-1 lead over the Purple Aces at FedEx Park on Friday night. They went on to win 13-9, despite a late inning rally from the Purple Aces.
"Coach (Daron Schoenrock) asked me before I went up to the plate, ‘Do you love this?'" Hynes said. "And I said, ‘‘Yes I do.' Then he said, ‘Just be ready,' and the first pitch I see was a fastball, and I took it over the fence."
Memphis won each game this weekend by an average margin of six runs, beating Evansville 13-9 in the first contest, 8-4 on Saturday, and 17-6 on Sunday. On opening night, the Tigers jumped out to a 12-2 lead going into the sixth inning, but the bullpen allowed the Purple Aces to make a game of it by the seventh, giving up five runs in the inning, followed by one each over the last two to end the game at a four-run deficit.
"I thought our table setters, in Drew Martinez and Chad Zurcher, did a good job with getting us started," Schoenrock said. "We kind of let the lead slip away in the middle innings, but we just gotta figure out how to play with the lead and stay ahead of the competition."
Although the Tigers had already locked up the series by Sunday's game, that didn't stop them from playing at the same pace. The U of M connected for 18 hits, including 11 extra base hits, en route to a 17-6 win over Evansville on Sunday afternoon. All eight of Memphis's position starters compiled hits, while six finished the day with multiple hits. The Tigers, who scored 38 runs on 47 hits in the first three games of the season, were led by Drew Martinez's big day. The junior went 3-for-5 and accounted for seven runs (four runs scored and three RBI). Eli Hynes and Adam McClain each posted three hits, while junior college transfer T.J. Rich drove in a team-best four runs.
"You always want to say that this weekend went like you always thought it would be," Schoenrock said. "But over the course of the weekend, I thought we put together really good, solid back-to-back-to-back-to-back at-bats, and that's what you expect from a veteran group of players."
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