Needing a Win to Make the Tourney, Tulane Baseball Can't Outscore Rice, 10-6
While the Tulane baseball team was floundering in Houston Friday night, excessively hindering their chances to make the American Conference tournament next week, the rest of the league on Friday was handing the Green Wave what they needed even if the Wave lost. Which it did in a 12-0 blowout defeat vs. Rice Friday night.
Post Season Chances on the Line
TU needed Charlotte to lose to improve there position in the post-season. The 49ers did just that on Friday The Greenies needed a Wichita State loss. The Shockers helped out with their defeat also on Friday. If Tulane could win out the rest of this weekend against Rice, the Green Wave would be in the tournament in Clearwater.
That didn't happen, as the Owls outscored the Greenies, 10-6, to claim the series for Rice. The loss by Tulane eliminates the Green Wave from any post season play for the first time in 12-years.
The Green Wave had scoring opportunities early, as a single and a throwing error in the top of the 1st had Tulane threatening early. A pair of sacrifices by Wave batters gave the Greenies a 1-nothing lead to begin the game.
Pitching a Problem Again
Coach Jay Uhlman turned again to his closer to be his starter on Friday night, Sam Larson. Last Saturday the junior right-hander helped rescue the season. Larson was called upon to start only his second game and came through in spades, going 5.2-innings, striking out seven, and giving up three runs, all earned. The righty started well against Rice Friday, setting down the side in the first, but in the second he gave up back-to-back doubles followed by a single, a pair of wild pitches plus a throwing error, and two walks ended his night just 1.2-innings deep with the bases loaded, two outs, and the Owls up 4-1.
Rice didn't let up from there. After that goose egg in the 1st, the home standing Owls scored in each of the next four innings, putting up four in the second, one in the third, two more in the fourth, and another in the fifth, piling up eleven hits for the game. That onslaught didn't stop until Tom Vincent came on in the sixth frame, the fourth Greenie on the mound for the night. The Houston native and Rice transfer set the Owls down in order for only the second time in the game.
Wave Offense Comes Alive, but Can't Keep up with the Owls
The Tulane offense did much better job of piling up their hits in game two. The Wave matched the Owl output getting 11-hits on the night, more than tripling the TU output on Friday evening. In fact, Green Wave batters did not go down 1-2-3 in an inning until the 7th. Leading the way with the bat was 1st baseman Trent Liolios going 3-for-4 with three RBIs including a two-RBI double in the 6th.
Though the Wave did put together double-digits hits for the night, they also left double-digits on the base paths. Tulane abandoned ten Greenies on the bags in the game. The Wave had trouble at the plate when anyone was on the bases. In the 17-times there were ducks on the pond, TU hitters could only manage three hits, while going a paltry 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position.
The loss drops Tulane to 25-29 on the year, 10-15 in American Conference play. The Green Wave will wrap up the season Saturday at 1:05 p.m. in Houston.
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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.