Wave Puts Offense in Gear, Claims Series vs South Florida, 9-5
Faced with a must-win situation, the Tulane baseball team was hitting on all cylinders as the Green Wave beat South Florida, 9-5 in Turchin Stadium on Sunday. It was the final game in Uptown for 14-seniors, who were feted before the game and substituted out late in the game to standing ovations in front of a Mother's Day crowd.
Sending off the Seniors
"It felt good, especially on Senior Day and Mother's Day to send the seniors off in the right way" sophomore Tanner Chun said after the game.
The Tulane center fielder waited until his final game of the year in Uptown to get his first home run of the season, an eighth inning at bat that saw Chun foul off five pitches before sending the dinger over the left field wall scoring himself and senior Kaikea Harrison who had preceded Chun's offering with a single.
"(It felt) so amazing," Chun said with a grin. "I've been working with the coaches to get back to where I was last year." In 2025, the sophomore had eight shots over the outfield wall. "I'm finally seeing the hard work pay off. It feels good."
Homers Aplenty
The Greenie outfielder wasn't the only one to clear the fence. Senior James Agabedis III smacked a solo shot over the right field fence in his second to last at bat in Turchin, helping the Wave to a 3-nothing lead in the 6th.
"I did not know it was gone," the four-year infielder shared with us after the game. "It was kind of off the end of the bat a little. If I know it's gone, I'll stand there and watch it a little...I just ran hard."
The home run that took the wind out of the South Florida sails, though, was a Jason Wach's laser shot over the right field wall that was a no-doubter, giving Tulane three-runs and the lead for good.
"(The South Florida pitcher) hung a slider," the sophomore designated hitter said. "My brother played with him at his old school and my brother told me 'You've got to hit the slider. It's the pitch to hit.' So I got the slider. I knew it was out."
Wave Playing with Conviction
"They played with confidence," coach Jay Uhlman said after the game. "They were free. They made a decision. In post-game on Friday (after a 10-run loss to South Florida), I really didn't give them permission, but, in a way, I did: I gave them permission to quit. My hope was they would take that and use that to fuel them. I felt like they did."
Sunday's game was a complete game for the Green Wave from start to finish.
"From pole-to-pole we played well," Uhlman agreed. "We did a lot of (good) things. It was a good victory."
The Green Wave piled up twelve hits on the day including that trio of homers. Tulane pitchers were efficient for most of the game. Starter LuisPablo Navarro went 2.2-innings, giving up two hits and no runs. Junior Jack Brafa followed with a strong 3.1-frames doing the same as Navarro with hits and runs. The righty was hitting 94-miles per hour on his fastball.
"He (Brafa) was electric," Uhlman told us. "Everything he was throwing: the slider was good, the changeup was good. Everything was working."
The victory puts the Green Wave in a tie for the 9th slot in the American Conference going into their final series against Rice in Houston that starts on Thursday. Tulane is one notch behind where they need to be with Wichita State standing in the 8th position. Only the top-8 go to the American tournament in a week.
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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.