Can Tulane Baseball String Together a Complete Series vs the Top of the American, UTSA?
It could be said that every conference weekend series is important, but this weekend's three-game set between Tulane and Texas-San Antonio will go a long way to determining placement for both teams in the American Conference tournament in three and a half weeks.
UTSA is tied atop the American with UAB, both standing at 10-5. The Road Runners have recorded a 2-and-1 weekend record against every conference foe they have faced this year, including a week ago against Charlotte. The Green Wave have been a roller coaster of a ride, falling to FAU two-of-three games last weekend after taking two-of-the-three games against rival East Carolina two weeks ago.
Ups and Downs Happen
"It's just a part of baseball," reliever Sam Larson told us this week. "There are going to be huge ups and downs. I don't think we pitched it (last weekend) as well as we have in the past. I think the game relies on that a lot: a good start and having the offense relax and get into the swing of things."
In order to make a move in the American standings, Tulane must put together back-to-back-to-back-back solid weekends, winning at least two-of-three each time to move up slots.
"Going out there and being aggressive," left fielder Tye Wood said in response to what has worked when the Wave win. "I feel that when we let the game come to us, take our walks, stealing (bases, we are a better offense)."
Pitching Set-Up for the Weekend
The Wave's Friday night starter will be a familiar face: graduate Trey Cehajic. He has started the first game of the weekend series nine times this season and has 10 total weekend starts this season. Cehajice has a 2-4 record, a 7.68 ERA in 43.1 innings thrown. He has struck out 41 while allowing 24 walks and 56 hits this season.
Game time for Friday has been moved to 7:00 p.m. in Turchin Stadium due to it being nationally televised on ESPN-U. Saturday's game is the usual 6:30, with Sunday's game moved up to Noon.
On Saturday, graduate graduate lefty Jake Toporek will take the mound. He is 1-3 on the year with a 3.53 ERA with 39 strikeouts in 35.2 innings worked. He is limiting opponents to a .252 batting average. This is Toporek's 16th appearance and sixth start of the season, his fifth conference start.
No decision has been made of yet for Sunday's starter. J.D. Rodriguez has been the go-to in for five straight weekends, since the injury to former-Sunday,-then-Saturday starter Jack Frankel, and the movement of former Saturday starter Beau Sampson and his subsequent season-ending injury, putting the pitching rotation in the Upside Down. Rodriguez has led the Wave to victory in four-of-the-five games he has started, including last weekend's smacking of Florida Atlantic.
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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.