Tulane Baseball Opens American Play vs Memphis at Turchin
The Tulane baseball team (11-11) starts American Conference play playing host to Memphis (5-14) this weekend from Friday - Sunday at Turchin Stadium. The game times for the contests are 6:30 p.m., 6:30 p.m. and 1 p.m. The three games against Memphis will be broadcasted on ESPN + and on the Tulane Sports Network from Learfield on WRBH 88.3 FM.
Pitching Matchups
The Green Wave will start graduate student Trey Cehajic on Friday. The right-hander went 5-2 last year in his second year as a member of the Green Wave. He sported an ERA of 4.89 with 57 strikeouts in 57 innings worked. He has started the first four Fridays this season with a 1-1 record, a 6.75 ERA in 20.0 innings thrown. He has struck out 26 while allowing 13 walks and 22 hits.
The Tigers are starting redshirt sophomore righty Will Howell. Howell is 1-3 on the year with a 5.48 ERA along with 18 strikeouts in 21.1 innings worked.
Tulane will start sophomore right-handed pitcher Jack Frankel on Saturday. Frankel hails from Plano, Texas and is in his first year with the program. Last season, while at Liberty, he went 4-3 with a 3.40 ERA. He also struck out 32 in 45 innings pitched. Frankel has been the team’s best starting pitcher in the early going with a 1-1 record to go along with a 3.75 ERA and 15 strikeouts in 24.0 innings thrown. He threw a complete game with one run allowed against Harvard (2/22) in earning the victory. This is his second Saturday start of the season although he was chosen to throw the middle game of the series on Sunday afternoon against TCU (3/8).
Memphis is going with graduate student left-handed pitcher David Case in the second game of the series on Saturday. Case is 1-4 on the campaign with 21 strikeouts in 21.1 innings thrown. This is his sixth start of the season. He sports a 6.75 ERA.
The Sunday starters for both Tulane and Memphis is to be determined depending on the results and relief pitcher usage through the first two games of the series.
Scouting Memphis
Memphis is 5-14 on the season and have lost two in a row and nine of the last 11 games after falling by scores of 12-7 and 25-14 in the final two games of last weekend’s home series against Eastern Illinois.
James Smith IV was named the American Conference Player of the Week this week after going 9-for-16 with three home runs and 16 RBIs last week. He was also named the National Hitter of the Week by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA). Shane Cox leads the offensive attack for Memphis with .382 batting average and 29 hits. Smith is hitting .333 with five doubles, five home runs, 27 RBIs, and 44 total bases. Freddy Rodriguez has walked 14 times and stolen 11 bases on the year. Michael Gupton has knocked in 23 runs on his 21 hits this season plus leads the club with his six home runs.
Will Howell and David Case are tied for the team leading with 21.1 innings thrown each. Case leads the club with his 21 strikeouts. Jacob Dienes has been the most effective relief arm with 10 strikeouts in 7.1 innings thrown.
The program is under the guidance of former Tulane assistant and former Southeastern Louisiana head man Matt Riser. Riser is 370-303 in his collegiate head coaching career. and is in his third year leading the Tigers.
Series History
These will be 128th-130th all-time meetings between the two schools. Tulane leads the all-time series by a 76-51 count since the first meeting in 1976. The Green Wave took two-of-three last May (5/9/25) in Memphis. Tulane won 3-2, 3-0 and then lost the final game of the series 15-6. Memphis won two of three the last time the two schools met in New Orleans in 2024.
First Conference Series
Tulane has won its first conference series in four of the last five years and is seven of the last eight seasons when a conference season was played* (The 2020 American Conference season was not played due to COVID-19 pandemic).
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 48 consecutive games dating back to the end of last season.
Who’s Hot in the Last Five Games
- Johnny Elliott is hitting .429 with three hits, a double, and an RBI.
- Kaikea Harrison sports a .350 batting average with five runs, seven hits, three doubles, a home run, three RBIs, 13 total bases, and a .435 on-base percentage.
- Tye Wood is hitting .333 with five hits, a double, four walks. three hit by pitches, and two RBIs.
- Hugh Pinkney has a .308 batting average with four hits, a home run, two walks, and two RBIs.
- Tanner Chun has five walks, two hit by pitches, three runs, four hits, and an on-base percentage of .458.
- Sam Larson has thrown in two games with 10 strikeouts in 6.2 innings.
- Jake Toporek has appeared in three games and has struck out six in 4.0 innings on the mound while limiting opponents to a .214 batting average against.
- Jude Abbadessa is 1-0 with seven strikeouts in six innings out of the bullpen.
- LuisPablo Navarro has appeared in two games with six strikeouts in 4.1 innings plus a save.
- Beau Sampson is unscored upon in his last three outings with four strikeouts.
Ripples
- Dating back to the end of last season, three of last five hits that James Agabedis III has are home runs.
- Jason Wachs has reached base safely in all 22 games this season
- Johnny Elliott has reached base safely in his last 10 games.
- Nate Johnson is hitting .294 with three home runs and 14 RBIs in games he starts this year.
- Kaikea Harrison leads the team with eight multiple run scored games.
- Tulane sports an 8-4 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.
- Nolan Nawrocki has the team’s only successful pinch hit opportunity on the year
- 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 49 in the first 22 games.
- The Green Wave are ranked second in the conference in walks (120) and third in stolen bases (33).
- 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 11 games with double figure strikeout totals.
- The program is second in shutouts (1) and fifth in ERA (4.79).
- Of the 23 new players on the roster this season, 19 have already made their Tulane debuts following the first 22 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 hit by pitches (10) and walks (21). He is fourth in stolen bases (10) and ninth in doubles (7).
- Jason Wachs ranks tied for third in the conference in doubles (8) and ninth in RBIs (23).
- Jack Frankel leads complete games with one.
- J.D. Rodriguez is third in wins (3) and tied for fifth in appearances along with Sam Larson and Jake Toporek (10) and sixth in strikeouts (31).
- Jude Abbadessa leads in appearances (11).
- Kaikea Harrison is tied for third doubles (8) and sixth in runs scored (25).
- Tye Wood is second sacrifice flies (4).
- Tom Vincent is fourth in saves (2).
- Larson and LuisPablo Navarro are tied for 10th in saves (1).
- Trey Cehajic and Frankel are tied for the lead in starts (5).
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.