Tulane Baseball on the Road at Nicholls Tonight
The Tulane baseball team (8-4), after another weekend series victory, gets back on the road for the first of five straight games (four road, one neutral) away from Greer Field at Turchin Stadium this week with a contest against Nicholls (5-8) starting at 6 p.m. at Ray E. Didier Field on Tuesday.
Pitching Matchups
The Green Wave starts graduate student left-handed pitcher Jake Toporek. Toporek has yet to receive a decision in four games out of the bullpen this season. He has struck out eight in 7.1 innings thrown with a 1.23 ERA while limiting opponents to a .250 batting average against. The Wagner University transfer went 8-1 last season with a 3.49 ERA.
Nicholls is slated to go with fellow lefty Shaydon Benson. Benson is 0-1 on the year. He will be making his fourth appearance of the season and his second start. Benson has struck out six in 5.2 innings thrown but has also walked six.
Scouting Nicholls
The Colonels have won five of the last seven games after dropping two of three in a conference matchup with McNeese State over the weekend. Caston Thompson has led the offensive attack this season with his .373 batting average, nine runs, 19 hits, five doubles, three home runs and 12 RBIs. Keegan Giger has 17 hits and 11 RBIs.
Owen Schenaydre appeared in four games with a 1.93 ERA in 4.2 innings worked. Dawson Richard is 1-0 with 14 strikeouts in 11.1 innings thrown. The program went 17-32 last season. The program is coached by Brent Haring. Haring is in his second year with the Colonels
Series History
Tulane leads the all-time series with Nicholls 69-27. The Green Wave defeated the Colonels in all three matchups last year by 13-3 , 9-5 and 9-4 scores.
Against the Southland Conference
The road game against Nicholls is the second of seven games against a Southland Conference opponent this season for Tulane. The program went 5-4 against Southland Conference (SLC) opponents last season and started this year’s game against SLC opponents with an 11-3 loss to UNO last week, Feb. 24. The school’s all-time mark is 308-167 against current schools in the SLC.
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 38 consecutive games dating back to the end of last season.
Who’s Hot in the Last Five Games
- Nate Johnson is hitting .750 with six hits, a triple, a home run, seven RBIs, a 1.375 slugging percentage, and 11 total bases.
- Jason Wachs is hitting .353 with six hits, two doubles, six RBIs, and three walks.
- Matthias Haas sports a .333 batting average with six hits, three doubles, six RBIs and 12 total bases.
- Jack Brafa pitched in two games with a start on the mound with five strikeouts in five innings pitched.
- Trey Cehajic is 1-0 with 11 strikeouts and one hit allowed in seven innings pitched.
- Jake Toporek has appeared in a pair of games out of the bullpen while throwing five innings with seven strikeouts.
- JD Rodriguez has appeared in two games with six strikeouts in five innings pitched.
Ripples
- Dating back to the end of last season, three of last four hits that James Agabedis III has are home runs.
- Jason Wachs and Tye Wood have reached base safely in all 12 games this season.
- Tulane is 6-1 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 three games at first, three games at third, three games in right field and three games as the designated hitter.
- After leading the American Conference last season with 131 doubles as team, Tulane is again leading the league in two-baggers with 34 in the first 12 games.
- The program’s pitching is averaging an impressive 10.2 strikeouts per game to place second in the American Conference. Tulane ranked second in the league in strikeouts a year ago with an average of 9.8 per contest. Of the 23 new players on the roster this season, 19 have already made their Tulane debuts following the first 12 games of the season. The only newbies that haven’t appeared in a game yet this season are RHP Max Mazinter, OF Cole Berge, OF/3B Matthew Major, and RHP Owen Geiss.
Individual Conference Leaders
- Tanner Chun leads the American Conference in walks with 13 and hit by pitches with five. He is second in stolen bases with seven. He and Jason Wachs are tied for fourth in the league with five doubles.
- Wachs is placed second in the league with 17 RBIs.
- Jack Frankel leads the league in complete games with one.
- J.D. Rodriguez is the league leader in wins with two.
- Jude Abbadessa is second in the conference in appearances (6).
- Sam Larson and Rodriguez are fifth in the league in appearances (5).
- Kaikea Harrison and Tye Wood are tied for fifth in the league in runs scored (15).
- Tom Vincent and Larson are tied for the league lead in saves (1).
- Trey Cehajic is third in the league in strikeouts (20).
- Harrison is the fifth-toughest batter to strike out this season (12.8).
- AJ Groeneveld and Nate Johnson are tied for the lead in triple (1).
- Cehajic, Beau Sampson and Frankel are tied for the conference lead in starts (3).
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.