Tulane Baseball Gets Tripped Up in Thibodaux, 6-5
The Tulane baseball team (8-5) lost 6-5 to Nicholls (6-8) on Tuesday, March 3, at Ray E. Didier Field. It was the first loss for Tulane in Thibodaux since 2016.
Tulane threatened in the ninth with a pair of runners reaching base to start the ninth, but the next three were retired in order including a pair of strikeouts.
Sam Larson (1-1) was tagged with the loss after surrendering the tying and the go-ahead run in his inning of work. He also struck out two. Jake Toporek started and allowed a pair of unearned runs in 2.1 innings with three strikeouts. J.D. Rodriguez surrendered two runs on three hits in 1.2 innings as the first man in from the bullpen. Blaise Wilcenski threw 2.1 innings in relief. Tom Vincent had a scoreless inning to close out the game for Tulane.
Kaikea Harrison led the hitting attack with two hits, two runs and three RBIs. Jason Wachs totaled a hit and two RBIs. Johnny Elliott tallied a hit and a run scored. Bryson Ayala had a hit and a run scored.
Tulane scored first with a pair of runs in the opening inning on a Wachs’ single up the middle.
The Colonels tied the game in the third inning with a pair of runs off a double steal of second and home followed by an RBI base hit from Nico Rijo-Berger.
Nicholls took the lead in the bottom of the fourth on the home run from Hudson Mattox.
The Green Wave quickly grabbed the lead back in the fifth inning. After back-to-back hits from Elliott and Ayala, Harrison hit a three-run home run, 5-3.
Nicholls answered in the bottom of the frame on a solo home run from Caston Thompson, 5-4.The Colonels again took the lead, 6-5, in the bottom of the seventh on the two-run home run from Thompson.
Next, Tulane keeps the road trip going and takes on No. 21/No. 17 TCU from March 6-8 in Fort Worth, Texas. Game times are 6 p.m., 4 p.m. and 1 p.m.
Notables
- Jason Wachs extended his on-base streak to 39 games from the end of last season and the first 13 games this year with a hit against Nicholls. The 39 games is a career high.
- Tye Wood has now reached base safely in all 13 games this season.
- Bryson Ayala’s hit was the first of his college career.
- The home run for Kaikea Harrison was his second of the season, third of his Tulane career and fourth of his college career dating back to USC.
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.