Needing a Sweep, Tulane Baseball Clobbered by Rice Instead, 12-0
The Tulane baseball team knew the first step they had to take to ensure making the American Conference tournament next week: win all three games in Houston against Rice.
On to step two, as the Green Wave laid a series-opening egg, losing to the Owls via the mercy rule, 12-0. It's the second time Tulane has lost by the 10-run rule in a month.
Nothing Working for the Green Wave
This is the fifth weekend in a row that the Wave has opened a conference three-game match with a loss. In those five losses, Tulane pitchers have averaged giving up over 11-runs. The contrast is how poorly the Wave offense has performed during that same stretch, averaging 2.4-runs per game in those five weekends.
Thursday starter J.D. Rodriguez struggled early giving up 10-hits and six-runs with five earned in the first 3.1-innings of work before being pulled for Jake Toporek. Things didn't get any better, though, as the lefty gave up six more runs all of them earned, the Owls piling up a 12-spot through five frames.
Neither Rodriguez nor Toporek were getting much help from their position players. While Rice was pounding out those eighteen hits in the game, Green Wave batters could only manage a pair of singles in the first six innings.
The Wave ended up with three hits on the night, two of them belonging to 2nd baseman Nate Johnson who had singles in the second and the seventh. The reigning American Conference player of the week, Jason Wachs got the only other Tulane hit of the game. The Green Wave never got a base runner past second base in the game.
Backs Against the Wall
With the loss, Tulane now finds itself against the wall as they try to find a way in to the American Conference tournament next week. The only way that can happen is for the Green Wave to win the next two games at Rice and get some help along the way from other league teams. The loss drops TU into a three-way tie for 8th place, tied with Charlotte, who lost to Memphis tonight, and South Florida, who beat Wichita State.
The Green Wave has not announced their pitchers for Friday or Saturday's game as of this writing. Game two is set for another 6:35 p.m. start in Houston Friday. Saturday's final contest will go at 1:05.
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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.