By Andrew Riedell
What a week it has been in Uptown New Orleans for the Tulane Green Wave as they played a five game week as they set their sights on a rare three-peat in trying to win the AAC Tournament again. Tulane welcomed in Nicholls and Jackson State for their midweek competitions and they took care of business winning those games by the scores of 9-5 vs Nicholls and 16-6 vs Jackson State. Those games were good tests for the bullpen and we saw a nice bounce back outing for J.D. Rodriguez who could be a staple in the Tulane Rotation down the road. After those midweeks Tulane set their eyes for their final test before AAC play starts next weekend as they hosted Xavier. Xavier coming in off of a few rough couple of weeks as they came into New Orleans losers of six straight to power houses such as #1 Tennesseee, #2 LSU, #19 Vanderbilt in the last two weeks. Here is how it went down:
Friday: Tulane 5 Xavier 2
Luc Fladda was the story on Friday night as the Tulane ace pitched seven innings, allowing two runs (one earned) while striking out a career high nine strikeouts. Nate Johnson led the Tulane offense with two RBIs and a hit. Xavier only source of offense came in the 3rd and 4th inning off of home runs from Hayden Christiansen (Not Anakin Skywalker.), and Clay Burdette. Tulane reclaimed the lead in the seventh off a Matthias Haas sac bunt that was thrown away, a wild pitch, and a Nate Johnson HBP to bring in the 5th run. Michael Lombardi came in the 8th with 1 out and the bases loaded and struck out both men he faced and worked a clean inning for his 4th save of the year.
Saturday: Xavier 10 Tulane 3
Coming to the ballpark on Saturday I learned that Trey Cehajic would not be the starter as Coach Uhlman scratched him due to the weather. (He sat through multiple rain delays last weekend and came out and still threw 100 pitches.) So instead of Cehajic it was Blaise Wilcenski who got the start. Wilcenski threw ok but the Xavier offense made him work and came through in the clutch with two outs multiple times. Wilcenski gave up five runs which only two runs were earned as his field did make a few errors. The story of this game was Xavier's starter Luke Hoskins who made his first start of the year as he went 5 1/3 innings only allowing one run and struck out five. Tulane's pitching struggled alot putting away Xavier hitters when in two strike counts and when the Wave had two outs. Kaikea Harrison was the lone offensive bright spot for the Wave as he had a double and drove in two runs.
Sunday: Tulane 5 Xavier 4
Will Clements got the start for the Green Wave and he struggled right out of the gate walking 4 of the first 5 Xavier hitters he faced. Mixed in their was a double play ball but Xavier still managed to strike first on a Nolan Tucker RBI single. Carter Benbrook was really solid out of the bullpen putting up some zeros on the board. The real story though for Tulane's pitching today was Tayler Montiel the redshirt junior earned the victory in the game and he was lights out. He tied a career high in innings pitched with three innings and a career high in strikeouts with four strikeouts. Offensively for the Green Wave Connor Rasmussen led the way with three hits. The key moment in the game came in the bottom of the 7th when Michael Lombardi laid down a beautiful safety sacrifice bunt to give Tulane the 5-4 lead. He then came into pitch and closed out the game earning his 5th save of the season.
What's next for Tulane
Tulane (15-5) hosts Lamar (15-7) for a midweek showdown on Tuesday night in New Orleans before hosting Wichita State (7-13) to open up AAC conference play. Lamar is no walk in the park though as they are 15-7 and hitting .327 as a team that is 22nd best in the NCAA. Wichita State is coming into New Orleans off a disappointing weekend dropping their series to Lousiana Tech which saw them lose games 27-12 and 7-1. In game 1 of that series Wichita State pitching walked 17 Louisiana Tech hitters. Tulane hosts Wichita State next Friday March 21st.
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