Another Sluggerbird Honored by MLB
Former Tulane catcher Colin Tuft was recently named to the Spring Breakout roster for the Baltimore Orioles and will participate in the MLB Spring Breakout games this week, the organization announced.
The third annual MLB Spring Breakout is from March 19-22, 2026. The preseason spotlight showcases baseball’s future stars as clubs assemble their top prospects to play in an exhibition against one another. The event spans four days and includes a total of 16 games. In 2025, 68 of MLB Pipeline’s 100 Top Prospects were on one of the rosters.
Tuft and the Orioles will take on the Boston Red Sox on March 20 in Sarasota, Florida at Ed Smith Stadium starting at 5:05 p.m. CDT in the Grapefruit League. The game can be watched on MASN, MLB.com, MLB.TV, and the MLB app.
He was picked in the eighth round (249th overall) by the Baltimore Orioles during the 2024 Major League Baseball Draft. This page from MLB gives his stats for the O's.
Tuft, a catcher from Vienna, Virginia, led Tulane during the 2024 season with 67 runs scored, 44 walks and 13 stolen bases while hitting .279 with 62 hits, 11 doubles, two triples, 12 home runs, 41 RBIs, 113 total bases, .509 slugging percentage, and a .437 on-base percentage. He started his career at Virginia, then transferred for that one year in Uptown. He played 62 games (tied for the most on the team), starting 61 of them. Lead the team with 13 stolen bases and with 44 walks, had a .983 fielding percentage. A 2024 Corvallis All-Tournament Team. A Second Team All American Conference.
Tuft began his career at Virginia where he caught and played in the outfield. He and his team won a regional, super regional and made a College World Series appearance with the Cavaliers. He was a member of the ACC Academic Honor Roll. He attended James Madison High School where he won a state, regional and district championship. Tuft was a two-time all-district and all-region; all-state in 2021. He hit .549 as a senior with a 1.52 OPS. He also played football and basketball.
He was the eighth Tulane player ever selected by the Baltimore Orioles following pitcher Joey Pursell (1980), pitcher Sam Amarena (1987), pitcher Todd Dyess (1994), pitcher Robbie Conway (1994), outfielder Hudson Haskin (2020), shortstop Collin Burns (2021), and pitcher Keagan Gillies (2021).
Tuft is the second former Tulane player that has been selected to participate in the Spring Breakout games along with pitcher Michael Lombardi for the Kansas City Royals.
Portions Courtesy Tulane Athletics
Doug has covered a gamut of sporting events in his fifty-plus years in the field. He started doing sideline reporting for Louisiana Tech football games for the student radio station. Doug was Sports Director for KNOE-AM/FM in Monroe in the mid-80s, winning numerous awards from the Louisiana Sports Writers Association for Best Sportscast and Best Play-by-Play. High school play-by-play for teams in Monroe, Natchitoches, New Orleans, and Thibodaux, LA dot his resume. He did college play-by-play for Northwestern State University in Natchitoches for nine years. Then, moving to the Crescent City, Doug did television PBP of Tulane games and even filled in for legendary Tulane broadcaster, Ken Berthelot in the only game Kenny ever missed while doing the Green Wave games. His father was an alumnus of Tulane in the 1940s, so Doug has attended Tulane football games in old Tulane Stadium, the Superdome, and Yulman. He was one of the 86,000 plus on December 1, 1973, sitting in the North End Zone to seeTulane shutout the LSU Tigers, 14-0. He was there when the Posse ruled Fogelman and in Turchin when the Wave made it to the World Series. He currently is the public address voice of the Tulane baseball team.