Tigers Fall 3-2 to East Carolina in Conference Opener

Friday, March 21

Greenville, N.C.

5 P.M.

University of Memphis

11-10, 0-1

East Carolina

13-9, 1-0

Memphis

East Carolina

Photo by: Brock Busick

Tigers Fall 3-2 to East Carolina in Conference Opener

Mar 21, 2025 | Baseball

Box Score

GREENVILLE, N.C. – The University of Memphis baseball team dropped its American Athletic Conference opener, 3-2, to preseason AAC favorite East Carolina at Lewis Field at Clark LeClair Stadium on Friday night.

The Tigers moved to 11-10 on the season while the Pirates improved to 13-9 overall.

"The guys fought tonight," head coach Matt Riser said. "Norby is a really good arm … I thought we competed and took better swings tonight than we had the last two weeks. A credit to the guys to answer the bell in that aspect … I'm proud of them. I thought we did a good job of handling the environment. Just have to stick to it and show up again tomorrow and play with the same consistency and same energy we had tonight."

HOW IT HAPPENED
• In the bottom of the first inning, the Pirates struck for the game's first run on a ground out to third base with one out.
• The Tigers wasted little time tying the game as catcher Jonah Sutton came to the plate with two outs in the second inning and mashed his second home run of the season to even the score at one run apiece.
• Memphis took the lead in the top of the fourth on another solo home run – this time off the bat of Shane Cox – putting the Tigers up 2-1.
• The Pirates answered with a pair of runs in the bottom half of the fourth. Alex Bouche singled to right-center field to drive in the tying run before coming around to score later in the inning on a sac-fly by Alex Peltier to give ECU the lead.
• Tiger RHP Seth Garner was relieved of his duties in the fifth inning when Davis Oswalt entered in relief. Oswalt struck out the final out of the inning in the fifth to strand the bases loaded.
• RHP Will Howell replaced Oswalt on the mound in the sixth and threw up three hitless, scoreless innings to give the Tigers a chance in the ninth.
• Memphis was able to string together a pair of hits and move the tying run within 90 feet in the top of the ninth, but the rally came up short as the Pirates took the AAC opener, 3-2.

NOTABLES
• Shane Cox went 2-for-4 with a solo home run and a run scored. The home run was his fourth of the season and marks a career high for the redshirt junior from Munford, Tennessee.
• Sutton hit his second home run of the season – a solo shot – and ended the night 1-for-3, also drawing a walk.
• East Carolina starter and back-to-back AAC Pitcher of the Week Ethan Norby had given up just one home run all season. Cox and Sutton each took the lefty deep. Norby also walked a season-high two batters and struck out a season-low five batters.
• Cade Greer, Creek Robertson and Justin Fogel all tallied a hit.
• Garner took the loss to move to 2-2 on the season. The right-hander went four innings, allowing three earned runs on five hits while striking out and walking three Pirates apiece.
• Oswalt walked a pair but struck out a pair to strand the bases loaded on one hit in the fifth.
• Howell threw three hitless, scoreless innings while striking out one and walking a pair. The redshirt freshman lowered his season ERA to 0.84.
• The Tigers played outstanding defense on the night as Will Vasseur, Nixon, Greer and James Smith IV all made plays that saved extra bases or runs.

UP NEXT
• The Tigers are back at Lewis Field at Clark LeClair Stadium tomorrow afternoon at 3 p.m. CT for a chance to even the series with the Pirates.

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