Memphis Hosts Valpo For Weekend Series
Memphis Tigers Baseball is back for more action as they welcome the Valparaiso Beacons to town for a three-game series. The Tigers enter the weekend with a 2-1 record following a season-opening series win versus Southeast Missouri. The first pitch of game one, on Friday, is scheduled for 2:05 pm and all three games will be streamed live on ESPN+. Games two and three are scheduled for 2:05 pm, on Saturday, and the finale, on Sunday, with the first pitch scheduled for 1:05 pm.
We will look at how Memphis performed on opening weekend, who the Beacons are, some series history, and three keys to success in the weekend for Memphis.
How Did Memphis Get Here?
Memphis shut out SEMO, 2-0, on Monday to secure the weekend series win. Keep in mind that SEMO was a regional finalist in the 2024 NCAA Tournament as they ended up in Fayetteville and battled with the Razorbacks and Kansas State. To start the season with this competition and win was a great start for the Tigers in 2025.
Head coach, Matt Riser, echoed this statement following the weekend as he stated “This was an important series against a team coming out of a Regional Final with a lot of experience,” when speaking on the series win. Memphis was led on the mound by starters Caden Robinson and Luke Ellis as the duo combined for 8 scoreless innings of three-hit baseball before Brayden Sanders entered the game to slam SEMO back home with a weekend loss.
Offensively, the Tigers were led by Shane Cox who finished the weekend with four extra-base hits and a .500 batting average as well as one home run. In addition to Cox, Memphis saw James Smith IV hit a home run, a double, and a pair of RBIs as he hit .364 from the plate. Some of the newest members of the rooster affected the winning weekend as fans saw Cade Tucker and Cy Turner both mash solo home runs in their first appearances at the plate as Tigers.
On the mound, Memphis would utilize their 4-1 win and above-mentioned shutout to close the series to bolster their staff ERA. The Tigers now ranks #25 nationally with a team ERA of 2.00 which is also second in the American behind Florida Atlantic. In addition to the strong mound performance, the defense behind the pitchers has been solid.
To further this, Memphis is tied for 1st in the nation, in double plays turned, with 6 in the opening weekend. The Tigers also currently sit second in the conference with sacrifice bunts with 2, and home runs, with 4 in 2025. In addition to this, Memphis leads the league, and ranks #56 nationally, with a 1.33 average of home runs per game.
After ranking 12th nationally with 54 double plays turned a season ago, the Tigers turned six during the opening weekend series vs. SEMO and share the national lead through a week of play.
We now analyze the opponent for the weekend, the Valparaiso Beacons.
Who Are The Valparaiso Beacons?
Coming to the Bluff City are the Beacons of Valparaiso from the Missouri Valley Conference. Led by 11th-year head coach, Brian Schmack, the Beacons enter the weekend with an 0-3 record. In their opening weekend, Valpo fell to Samford in a 4-2 opening game loss followed by two-run rule, 7-inning games, to close the series.
The Beacons will roll into Memphis searching for their first win of the season after being swept by Samford to open the year. Valpo lost a 4-2 game on Opening Day before being run-ruled in seven innings in the final two games of the series. Game two ended in a 14-4 loss and the finale ended 15-5 in favor of Samford.
On the mound this weekend, the Beacons will start righty Connor Lockwood {0-1, 3.38 ERA, 8 IP, 7 K, 0 BB} in game one followed by lefty Lucas Foley {0-1, 31.50 ERA} on Saturday and right-hander Spencer Boynton {0-1, 54.00 ERA} in the finale on Sunday. From an offensive perspective, the Beacons have been led by senior outfielder, Ryan Maka, who has quite the start to 2025. With a pair of home runs on opening day, the power-hitting righty now has 18 career home runs which is three away from being in the top ten in Valpo history. After hitting only four deep balls in 2025, Marka is three away from a tie for 10th all-time.
Series History
Looking at the series history between these programs, Memphis will host the seventh to ninth games played all time this weekend. The Tigers lead the all-time series, 5-1, entering the weekend, including a sweep in Memphis during the 2009 season and two wins out of three when they faced off in 2022.
Three Keys To Memphis Success
Steady Pitching
In this series, Memphis must control the game from the mound. With this, the Tigers will send right-hander Seth Garner, lefty David Case, and right-hander Caden Robinson to shut down the Beacons. All three pitchers will be looking for their first win of the season. We know that Sanders can come in and shut down essentially any team but the game has to be in the right situation for this. Can Memphis dominate on the mound? We will soon find out.
Defensive Bunch
We spoke about the defense earlier as this will be key all season. In the opening weekend, Memphis fared well against SEMO but Riser will need to keep seeing this throughout the season. In this series, Memphis will need to continue to allow their pitchers to work with confidence. Solid play behind them will
Hot Bats
Defense wins championships. Right? Well, you have to score runs to win. With this, we will need to see the Tigers get the bats going in this series. In the opening weekend, Riser spoke of this following the opening day split of games. The second-year head coach of Memphis stated “We played outstanding defense in game one and pitched really well … because we played good defense early and put ourselves in a good position to get some big swings of the bat, we have to move the baseball more on offense. Maybe some opening-day jitters with our two-strike plan not being consistent, but you see the power we have and there’s some strength there. If we can move the baseball as well, we’ll be able to consistently score runs.” when speaking on how to get the bats going.
We have seen the power in the past yet this season we are seeing more “small ball” style and more station-to-station play along with the stout bats. With the season just getting started this will be another key series for Memphis to get some runs across the board while getting wins along the way.
In closing, this will be an exciting weekend of baseball in Memphis. While the weather has not been kind with the winter storm that forced a reschedule of the Arkansas Little Rock game to March 5th, the players and coaches will be scorching hot for more baseball. If you can make it out to the games you are guaranteed to have fun.
It’s baseball after all, who doesn’t have fun watching baseball!?
