Tulane Baseball Explodes for Eight in the 8th to Claim EKU Series, 11-3
The Tulane baseball team (8-4) scored eight runs in the eighth inning to take the lead and control in an 11-3 victory over Eastern Kentucky (3-8).on Sunday afternoon, March 1, at Greer Field at Turchin Stadium. Tulane has now won each of the first three weekend series of the campaign.
Enough Good Pitching to Keep TU in the Game
Tom Vincent (1-0) was credited with the victory after escaping a jam in the top of the eighth to keep the game tied before the offense took control in the bottom half of the frame. Jack Frankel started for the Green Wave and allowed three runs (two earned) in 5.0 innings thrown with two strikeouts. Jack Brafa was the first reliever in and had 1.2 scoreless with two strikeouts. Sam Larson contributed a scoreless inning. Jude Abbadessa pitched a scoreless ninth to secure the victory.
Tulane 3rd Bagger Has Big Game
Matthias Haas led the offensive attack with two hits, including a home run, and three RBIs. AJ Groeneveld totaled two hits, a run scored and the game-winning RBI in the eighth inning. Kaikea Harrison scored a pair of runs. Tye Wood contributed two runs scored, a hit, an RBI and a walk. Jason Wachs drove in a pair of runs plus scored one on his hit and a walk. Trent Liolios scored a run and had an RBI. Tanner Chun had a hit and an RBI. Johnny Elliott picked up a hit, two RBIs and a run scored.
Tulane scored first with two runs in the opening inning. Haas started the scoring with a sacrifice fly to plate to Harrison. A Liolios ground out scored Wood for the team’s second run.
The game stayed 2-0 until the top of the sixth when EKU took the lead on RBIs from David Alvarez, Khaleei Pratt and Silas Shaffer. The Green Wave quickly tied things up, 3-3, on a home run from Haas in the bottom of the frame.
After escaping two out two runners on jam in the top of the eighth, Tulane’s offense exploded for eight runs. Groeneveld drove in the first tally of the frame with a single, 4-3. He was followed by a two-run single from Elliott, 6-3. A run then came in on a throwing error by the EKU first baseman. 7-3. Wood followed with a single to plate the fourth run of the inning, 8-3. Wachs really broke things open with a two-run single, 10-3. Haas put the game fully out of reach, 11-3, with his RBI double.
Ripples
- Jason Wachs extended his on-base streak to 38 games from the end of last season and the first 11 games this year with a walk today against Eastern Kentucky. The 38 games is a career high.
- Tye Wood has now reached base safely in all 12 games this season.
- Tulane has now won each of the first three weekend series this season.
Next, Tulane starts a four-game road swing with a trip to Nicholls (5-8) on Tuesday, March 3, starting at 6 p.m.
Portions Courtesy Tulane Athletics
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.