Friday Jinx Continues for the Wave, as TU Mercy-Ruled by Charlotte, 10-0
Maybe it's just Fridays.
For the fifth time in seven American Conference first games of a weekend, and the third time in a row, a Friday starter found himself in early trouble and Tulane bats went nowhere, as the Green Wave were 10-run ruled by cellar dweller Charlotte 10-0 on Friday night. It's the first time the Wave have been mercy ruled this season and the first time the Tulane offense has been shut out in 2026.
Pitcher J.D. Rodriguez moved up to a Friday start on four days rest and gave up five runs on four singles, a double and a three-run home run in just two frames.
Rodriguez lasted three innings in what was his worst game as a Greenie, giving up 10-hits, 8-runs all earned, walking two, and striking out five.
Meanwhile, the Wave bats were held hitless over those same three frames, striking out four times. The Green Wave didn't get their first hit until two out in the top of the 4th. Tulane could only manage three hits on the night.
The only threat put up by the Wave happened in the top of the 4th, when designated hitter Matthias Haas and 2nd baseman Nate Johnson smacked back-to-back two-out singles. Both were left stranded, though when the final Tulane batter of the inning grounded out to end the threat.
The loss by the Green Wave drops them to 23-24 for the year, 8-11 in American Conference play. That scrambles Tulane's chances of making the league tournament, as the Wave drops out of a four-way tie for 5th place with other games still to be completed. Charlotte remains at the bottom of the American standings, now 6-13 in league play, 21-24 overall. The top eight of the ten teams in the conference make the league post-season tourney in Clearwater, Florida. two-and-a-half weeks from now.
The inclement weather that swept through the New Orleans area on Friday is moving through the Charlotte area overnight Friday and most of the day Saturday. Thus, the first pitch for game two has been moved back an hour to 4:00 p.m., CDT. Jake Toporek is the scheduled starter for the Wave. The graduate student left-hander is 1-4 on the year with a 5.00 ERA with 39 strikeouts in 36.0 innings worked. He is limiting opponents to a .276 batting average. This is his 17th appearance and seventh start of the season including his sixth conference start. He started and threw 5.1 scoreless innings against Wichita State (4/2).
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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.