Tulane drops series to UTSA: Time to panic?
- Info CBC
- 5 hours ago
- 4 min read
By Andrew Riedell
The Tulane Green Wave began their two week rollercoaster ride with a trip to San Antonio to face the AAC leader UTSA, #21 in my newest rankings. (Follow me @RiedellAndrew to see them each week)
Tulane had already dropped their midweek game vs University of New Orleans on Tuesday in a game where Head Coach Jay Uhlman wished his team did the little things better that might have made the game go differently. Here is what happened in San Antonio:
Thursday: UTSA 13 Tulane 5
Tulane threw Luc Fladda, and I thought he threw okay, the ball just happened to be flying all over the ball park in San Antonio. I talked to a scout who said the ballpark this weekend was playing like a Little League field.
Fladda went five innings, allowing seven runs and seven hits, but six of the seven were given up in the first two frames before he settled down. Fladda was then taken out for Julius Ejike Charles, a freshman who has been a solid option for the Green Wave. It was an interesting choice to see him come in the game, especially when Henry Shuffler was also warming up beforehand. Charles struggled against the UTSA lineup, giving up two hits and walked two, allowing four runs to score from a wild pitch and James Taussing triple. Hugh Pinkney stayed hot by hitting a home run, his second of the season, and he also had an RBI single later in the game.
Friday: Tulane 5 UTSA 3
Trey Cehajic got the start for the Green Wave on Friday. He was solid, much better than his last couple outings. The real story, though, was Tayler Montiel and Michael Lombardi. Montiel came in after Cehajic and slammed the door. He went three innings, allowing only two hits and striking out three for his fourth win of the season. Lombardi followed and got his ninth save of the season, going 1.2 innings to close it out while striking out two.
The Green Wave tied the game in the fourth off the bat of Matthias Haas with an RBI single. Jason Wachs and Pinkney then gave them the lead with a Wachs sac fly and Pinkney RBI double, before Haas again singled to bring home Pinkney. Pinkney brought in another RBI in the sixth to make it 5-3, and pitching was solid on both sides to keep it that way until Lombardi secured the win. (I wish I could stop right here, but there was one more game.)
Saturday: UTSA 25 Tulane 7
The Tulane spring football game was Saturday, and I doubt there were 32 points scored in that one. There is nothing to really recap from this one except that UTSA kicked some Green Wave butt to win the series.
Tulane pitching struggled, and I mean STRUGGLED, allowing 15 walks plus 16 hits to UTSA. Nothing against UTSA lineup, they are a very good lineup, but you are not going to beat any team in the country walking 15. Tulane now falls second in walks allowed, behind only Wichita State, probably the worst pitching staff in the AAC. The funny thing is that Tulane also leads the AAC in strikeouts. The Green Wave used 10 pitchers in a seven inning game, during which six did not even record three or more outs. Credit to Norris McClure, Mason Lytle, and Diego Diaz, who all hit home runs in the conducive atmosphere. Tulane allowed only five extra-base hits on Saturday, but they allowed eleven singles.
My thoughts:
The one thing that had concerned me about this Tulane team was the lineup. I was wrong. They have found key pieces in Pinkney, Wachs, and Theo Bryant IV to slot in the batting order to hit around Rasmussen and Haas.
Tulane pitching this week was terrible. If I am a Tulane fan, it just might be time to panic and worry. Tulane has won back-to-back AAC Conference Tournaments because of pitching stepping up in key moments. This team has not shown pitching consistency, and that will punish it at conference tournament time.
The only thing for certain it feels like for this Green Wave pitching staff is that Luc Fladda and Trey Cehajic are your two starters, and your top two relievers are Montiel and Lombardi.
Even then, it is difficult to use Montiel after Fladda, because they are both lefties and Lombardi is a two-way, so if you use him, you then risk burning the DH if he doesn't do well. Guys like Will Clements, Blaise Wilcenski, and Carter Benbrook (no official word on why he did not throw in the series) have been either really good or struggled (there's that word again).
Then, it feels like in midweek games, Head Coach Jay Uhlman and Pitching Coach Anthony Izzio are trying to piece together innings, to find guys who can get outs and put zeroes on the board. It just seems like they have been having trouble finding that. Which, by the way, I do not hate. I love the idea of guys getting work in and trying to build for the postseason.
But, someone needs to step up on the staff. No pun intended, but the road does not get any easier for the Green Wave, as they go to Southern Miss on Tuesday and then head to "The Jungle" to face East Carolina this weekend.
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