On a brisk Monday afternoon, the Memphis Tigers welcomed SEMO to FedEx Park for the series-deciding game three against an NCAA Tournament Regional team.

Coming into Opening Weekend for the Memphis Tigers, a series win over the SEMO Redhawks would be added icing to the start of the 2025 Memphis Baseball season. SEMO came into the series with the Tigers looking to continue their success from last season, when they knocked on Arkansas in the Fayetteville Regional, giving Dave Van Horn and the Arkansas Razorbacks an early exit from the NCAA Tournament.

In more ways than not, the three-game set with SEMO was a chance for Coach Riser and his program to gauge where they are in the pecking order of programs with chances to take the next step in 2025. The series win over SEMO did just that; Monday’s game three decider will likely be a pivotal point to look back on as the season progresses as the game that started it all.

Memphis took the first game of a doubleheader on Friday, dropped the second, and then had to sit on the loss for two days due to bad weather in the Memphis area on Saturday and Sunday while shifting the focus to Monday.

With Caden Robinson on the mound, Coach Riser and his staff knew they could count on their pitching. The Tigers would take the series over SEMO if they could get the run support. Robinson gave Memphis his all, giving the Tigers 4.1 innings of two-hit baseball. Despite walking four, Robinson would see his day end with three strikeouts and no earned runs. Luke Ellis would come in for a long relief stint, giving the Tigers 3.2 innings of one-hit baseball, combined with one walk and three strikeouts. Ellis’s long relief stint paved the way for Brayden Sanders to close out SEMO, pitching an inning of one-hit baseball to bring the 2-0 victory to the Tigers.

Timely hitting from Will Vasseur, Shane Cox, Creek Robertson, and Jonah Sutton pushed the Tigers over the finish line with two runs.

It’s only one series, but the Tigers’ series win over SEMO was an excellent start to the 2025 Memphis Baseball season. If it comes down to the two for Regional seeding, the Tigers would have a leg up on SEMO with an early-season head-to-head series win.

Memphis will return to action on Tuesday for a midweek matchup with Little Rock at FedEx Park. With an impending snowstorm in the Memphis metro area, Memphis and Little Rock will begin at 1:05.

Photo Credits – Memphis Baseball on X