Rubber Match Goes to the Wave, 6-3, over Pirates
One might not want to use the word "complete" too often, as it could get worn out. But the Tulane baseball team seems to be jelling at the right time, putting together another, pardon the use of the word, pretty complete game, as the Green Wave finished off the best-of-three series against rival East Carolina with a 6-3 victory over the Pirates, giving the Wave the series, two-games-to-one. Tulane moves to 19-18 on the year, 6-6 in the American Conference . ECU drops to 22-14-1, 7-5 in league play.
"If you just look at the standings from top to bottom, today's (victory) was an enormous game for us," head coach Jay Uhlman said after the game. "We really enjoy competing against them. They're well coached, they play tough. I feel like we are, too. "
With the series win, the Wave find themselves just two games behind league-leading UAB and UTSA. If you're looking ahead a bit, Texas-San Antonio has to come to New Orleans for their series with Tulane. That three-game set hits April 24th-26th.
Rodriguez Has Another Masterful Outing
Right hander J.D. Rodriguez got the nod on the mound to start, and for the second weekend in a row, had a stellar performance. The senior hurler gave up solo home runs in the first and second innings, but settled in nicely to stretch his start to 5-and-one-third innings.
"It was eerily similar to my start against Creighton here," Rodriguez said. "(Against Creighton) I get the first two outs, get the next guy deep into a count and give up a solo shot to left. Same thing here (versus ECU). Second inning, go out there, get two outs, then a solo shot to right field. Exact same thing (as against Creighton). So I've been there before, and I visualized it; I've lived it. So I understood the things I had to do to be mentally sharp to make sure I don't allow myself to be flustered while I'm going through it."
"Solo homers aren't the ones that are going to beat you," Uhlman told us. "It's the traffic before, which obviously he didn't have any. Then it's being able to get off the field and limit the damage, which he did. J.D. was truly tremendous today. He went to the zone. He had all his pitches working, got a lot of ground balls, and we played routine, clean defense."
Besides those those two solo homers early, the senior from California gave up only two other hits and one run over the rest of the 20-batters he faced, walking only a pair and striking out five.
Offense Has a Surprise Leader
Leading the way offensively was third baseman James Agabedis III. The senior has had his struggles this year, not reaching the Mendoza Line for the most part, but in what may be Tulane's most important game of the year to this point, Agabedis walked, had a single, a double, stole a base and scored a run. When we asked him how he felt about his big game, he deflected.
"It was a great team win for us," Agabedis deflected. "It's a really big series when we play those guys."
"He's a four-year guy. He's kind of a unicorn now, with the transfer portal," Uhlman praised the young man from Sudbury, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. "It hasn't been an easy four years. It's been a lot of sitting and waiting, getting a chance, then not doing it, then being back on the bench. For him to settle back in and finally look comfortable is a big thing."
The three game series had its interesting moments. From the solo home runs on Sunday, to the sometimes chippy talk back and forth on Friday, the Tulane-East Carolina series has become a rivalry for both squads.
"I feel like we elevate our game when we play them," Agabedis said.
"There is some(thing extra) behind it," Rodriguez admitted. "There are rivalries: Yankees-Red Sox in (Major League) baseball, Packers-Bears in (NFL) football. I think that's our deal with ECU. We've got a lot of history with them. We knew what was at stake, and knew that it was super important series."
The Green Wave are back home Tuesday night for a 6:30 p.m. game in Turchin against in-state rival Southeastern Louisiana, then the Wave are on the road to Boca Raton next weekend versus Florida Atlantic.
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.