Must Win Produces Tulane Victory vs South Florida, 9-8
Faced with a good possibility of being left out of the American Conference post-season tournament, the Tulane baseball team needed a victory Saturday against a South Florida team that had humbled the Green Wave Friday night in a 10-run win over the Wave.
Green Wave Shows Resilience
Falling behind 2-nil after an inning and a half, the Sluggerbirds came back strong, pushing across runs in three straight middle innings, scoring three more in the eighth, then holding off a storming South Florida team for an important 9-8 victory at Turchin Stadium Saturday night.
"He's always preaching about the response," designated hitter Jason Wachs said about his coach Jay Uhlman's post game talk after Friday's loss. "We all know we didn't play great last night, so today it was about coming out and giving our best effort."
"That was my message last night," coach Jay Uhlman said. "My hope walking away from that (talking to by him to the team after Friday's loss) was, 'If we have the kind of kids that I believe that we have, they will respond,' and they did."
After South Florida tied the game at 6-all in the top of the eighth, the Wave manufactured runs out of what seemed like thin air, including Greenies getting hit by pitch, walks, advancing on wild throws by Bulls pitchers (two of them), and a slashing single by designated hitter, Jason Wachs, driving in two of the three runs in the eighth to take a 9-6 lead.
"Obviously a big spot," Wachs said after the game. "We're only up by one at that point (and) wanted to extend the lead. I was just looking for a fast ball, and I was able to get on top of it and got it."
A Closer Becomes a Starter
For only the second time this season, closer Sam Larson was called upon to give the Green Wave some solid innings as a starter on the mound. The junior right-hander responded by going 5.2-innings, allowing five hits, three runs all earned, walking four, but striking out seven.
"I had that (starting) role last year, so I was comfortable with it," Larson said. "I just tried to give as much as I could and go as deep as I could in the game."
When Larson came out to a standing ovation from the Tulane crowd that braved the stormy night, he made his way to the bullpen, where his fellow pitchers all congratulated and hugged him down the third base line.
"We just have great relationships," Larson said with a grin. "Everyone is just super tight in the bullpen. I think that helped with today's success."
"That's why we started him," coach Jay Uhlman said about Larson. "That's a guy that everybody, to a man in this program, believes in. He's tough. He's competitive. When you have a competitive guy on the mound, you kind of take his personality."
And a Starter Becomes a Closer
One of those in the pen was former starter Trey Cehajic, who threw the ninth and had to work through a pair of errors on the right side of the infield for the Wave for his first save of the season.
"Just try to get to the next pitch," Cehajic shared. "I know that no matter what happened behind me, I know we're going to be able to come back."
"For me, I think the really cool part is Trey," Uhlman said after the game, "where he just kept going to the zone, despite him doing his job and we don't make plays. He just kept going for it. That part for me, sang to my core. He was able to just go for it and just do it, not worry about what was going on behind him."
Work Not Done for the Green Wave
With the victory, Tulane places itself in a three-way tie for the bottom of the American with the Bulls and Charlotte, both of whom lost Saturday night. Just as important is the loss by Wichita State, which is only one game ahead of those three and Memphis, who is only two games up from last slot. The Green Wave can find itself in the seventh slot or higher after this weekend, if the cards fall correctly.
"It was a great win," Wachs told us after the game, "but we know we need to be better or we can't go where we want to go."
"It was a huge win," Cehajic said afterwards. "We know what the circumstances are, so we have to go out and keep winning each game."
That starts on Sunday in the home finale for the Green Wave. First pitch is set for 1:00 p.m. in Turchin Stadium on Mother's Day. No word as to who will start for either team.
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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.