Tulane Baseball Homestand Continues vs. In-State Rivals UNO and Northwestern State
The Tulane baseball team (9-11) keeps the program’s season-long nine game homestand going with a pair of midweeks against in-state opponents this week on Greer Field at Turchin Stadium. The program locks up with the UNO Privateers (9-12) in the second and final game of the Pelican Cup on Tuesday, March 17. The team then welcomes the Northwestern State Demons (13-7) on Wednesday, March 18. The game times for both contests is 6:30 p.m. The games against UNO and Northwestern State will be broadcasted on ESPN + and on the Tulane Sports Network from Learfield on WRBH 88.3 FM.
Pitching Matchup
The Green Wave are slated to start junior righty Jack Brafa on Tuesday. Brafa is 1-0 on the season with a 4.76 ERA. This is his eighth appearance of the season and his third start. He has thrown 11.1 innings with 14 strikeouts. while limiting opponents to a .220 batting average. UNO is starting fellow righty Reid Leonard. Leonard is making his fifth start and fifth appearance on the year. He is 0-3 with 13 strikeouts in 15.2 innings. He is limiting opponents to a .274 batting average but has also walked 10 this season.
Neither Tulane nor Northwestern State have announced a probable starter for Wednesday.
Scouting UNO
UNO is off to a 9-12 start this season after splitting the two games against Mississippi Valley State (3/10-11) and falling in two of three games to the University of Incarnate Word in conference action over the weekend.
UNO has been led by Dylan Biddick. Biddick is hitting .380 with 12 runs, 27 hits, sevne doubles, two home runs, 10 RBIs and 17 walks in the first 20 games. Evan Rogers is hitting .358 with 24 hits and 13 RBIs. Owen Smith leads the club with his six home runs and 22 RBIs plus he is hitting .319. Kruise Newman also has six home runs to go along with 17 RBIs.
Rex Henderson is 1-0 with five strikeouts in 7.1 innings worked. William Andrade leads the club with his 21 strikeouts in 20 innings worked. The UNO pitching staff has limited opponents to a .282 batting average.
Last year, UNO went 28-26 with a mark of 12-17 in the Southland Conference. The Privateers won three games in the Southland Conference Tournament before being eliminated.
The program is under new leadership as Andrew Gipson is in his first year with the Privateers. Overall, this is his third year as collegiate head coach after working at Belhaven for the last two seasons. He is 68-44 in his head coaching career.
Pelican Cup
The Pelican Cup was brought back in 2018. After a two-year hiatus in 2020 and 2021, it returned again in 2022. The Privateers are the current holders of the cup after going 2-0 last season against Tulane and winning the first game of the season series in the first month of the season. The Privateers have captured the cup four times (2018, 2019, 2023, and 2025) while Tulane has been the winner of the cup twice (2022 and 2024).
Series History with New Orleans
This will be the 163rd all-time meeting between the crosstown rivals on the diamond in a series that started in 1971. Tulane leads the all-time series 87-75. The Green Wave dropped both games to the Privateers last season and also the first game this year by an 11-3 margin.
Scouting Wednesday's Opponent, Northwestern State
The Demons are 13-7 overall this year with a 6-3 mark in the Southland Conference after taking all three from Texas A&M Corpus Christi over the weekend. Northwestern State has won six consecutive games coming into the week.
The program plays a road game against Southern on Tuesday before continuing on the road trip to play against Tulane on Wednesday.
Thomas Marsala leads the team with his .341 batting average. 20 hits, 19 runs, five home runs and 22 RBIs. Brooks Leonard is hitting .338 with 26 hits, 15 runs, nine stolen bases, and 10 RBIs. Joe Siervo sports a .329 batting average with 15 runs, 26 hits, three home runs, and 15 RBIs.
Brody Trosclair has been the team’s top pitcher with a 3-0 record, 0.45 ERA and 31 strikeouts in 20 innings worked over seven games. Kevin Robinson sports a 0.86 ERA with 15 strikeouts in 21 innings thrown covering eight games. Trent Hillen has struck out 34 in 26.2 innings. Lucas Harrington is 2-0 with 10 strikeouts and two saves in 11.2 innings worked.
Chris Bertrand is in his third year in charge of the program. He is 70-61 all-time leading the Demons and 189-130 in his seven years as a Division I head coach.
Series History
Tulane is 20-4 all-time against Northwestern State since the start of the series in 1983 when the Green Wave earned an 11-5 victory. The two schools have only faced each other three times the last 13 years when a brief two-game series in New Orleans was split (W, 3-0 & L, 5-1) in 2013. Tulane also earned the 8-4 victory last season (4/2/25).
Coming In On A Streak
Jason Wachs, despite seeing his hitting streak snapped at 23 games following the opening game of the season against LMU, has still now reached base safely in 46 consecutive games dating back to the end of last season.
Who’s Hot in the Last Five Game
- Hugh Pinkney is hitting .500 with six hits, a home run, and a double.
- Tye Wood sports a .412 batting average with seven hits, two doubles, three RBIs, nine total bases, a .529 slugging percentage, three walks, and a .478 on-base percentage.
- Tanner Chun is hitting .278 with four runs, five hits, two doubles, two RBIs, and six walks.
- Jason Wachs has totaled four runs, five hits, and four walks.
- Kaikea Harrison has four runs, five hits, a home run, and two RBIs.
- Nate Johnson has recorded four RBIs and five walks.
- Sam Larson has thrown in two games five strikeouts in 4.1 innings.
- Jake Toporek has appeared in four games and has struck out eight in 6.2 innings on the mound, while limiting opponents to a .136 batting average against.
Ripples
- Dating back to the end of last season, three of last four hits that James Agabedis III has are home runs.
- Jason Wachs has reached base safely in all 20 games this season
- Johnny Elliott has reached base safely in his last nine games.
- Nate Johnson is hitting .333 with three home runs abd 12 RBIs in games he starts this year.
- Kaikea Harrison leads the team with seven multiple run scored games.
- Tulane sports a 7-4 record this year in games that Hugh Pinkney starts behind the plate.
- The program is also 3-0 in games that Matthias Haas starts as the designated hitter.
- Haas has started at four different positions this season with five games at first, seven games at third, three games in right field and four games as the designated hitter.
- Tye Wood leads the club with five two-out RBIs.
- After leading the American Conference last season with 131 doubles as team, Tulane is again among the leaders this season and are currently second in two-baggers with 47 in the first 20 games.
- The program’s pitching is averaging an impressive 9.8 strikeouts per game to place fourth in the American Conference. Tulane ranked second in the league in strikeouts a year ago with an average of 9.8 per contest.
- The Tulane pitching staff has recorded nine games with double figure strikeout total.
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.