Tulane Baseball Cannot Hold Lead, Loses in 11 to Rice, 6-5
The final game of the Tulane baseball season was a microcosm of its 2026 season: lack of timely hitting and pitching and poor fielding ate up the Green Wave in game three against Rice. The Wave held the lead over their American Conference foe until the bottom of the ninth before the home standing Owls tied it up, then outscored TU 6-5 in 11-innings.
The Green Wave were already eliminated from the American Conference tournament after losses on Friday and Saturday. Tulane ends its 2026 season with a 25-31 record for the year, 10-17 in league play, and last place in the American standings. The Wave and South Florida will not be in Clearwater for the tourney, although the Bulls are the hosting school.
Offense Spotty Throughout
The Green Wave wrangled together only six hits in the contest. No one in the Tulane lineup could manage more than one hit in the eleven frames, though third bagger Jack Johnson did manage to draw two of the Wave's four walks.
Right fielder Jason Wachs closed out the 2026 season hitting a two-run homer over the right field fence in the third for his only hit of the day. 2nd baseman Bryson Ayala, who came on as a replacement for James Agabedis in the eighth, smacked a two-run scoring double down the left field line in that inning.
However, Ayala was one of four Greenies who committed errors in the game. In fact, Ayala garnered two, one in the eighth and another in the game-losing 11th. The others were made by the man Ayala replaced, Agabedis, left fielder Tye Wood and his replacement Evan Burg. Five errors in a game were the most this season for the Green Wave.
Wave Pitching Starts Strong, but...
Pitching held together for 8-innings for the Green Wave. LuisPablo Navarro started the game, going 4.2-innings, giving up four hits, striking out a quartet of Owls, and not giving up a run. Jack Brafa took over in the 5th, stretching his appearance to 2.1-innings, giving up only two hits and one run that was earned.
Then the flood gates opened, as lefty Julius Ejike-Charles lasted only 2/3rds of an inning, walking two, giving up a hit and two runs, both earned. Three more Wave pitchers followed, none of them lasting more than an inning, each of them walking at each one.
American Conference Tourney Set
Here are the pairings for the American tournament, which begins Wednesday in Clearwater, Florida.
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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.