Tulane Bats Fall Silent Vs. Houston

John Owens-Tulane Hullabaloo

On a clear night at Turchin Stadium, Tulane hosted Conference USA rival Houston for the first of a three game series. After suffering a tough loss to Florida International in their last contest, the Green Wave were looking to even their conference record at two and two with a victory against Houston. Unfortunately it didn’t happen, and the Green Wave lost two to zero, in another rough outing for the offense.

“You know one through nine we can hit and we know that. We need to come out and do it because our pitchers are doing a really good job,” Sophomore Brandon Boudreaux said. “You know they’ve carried us through the first part of the season and now are banged up a little bit and we need to take control, we need to be leaders on the team.”

Boudreaux may have gotten one hit, but Tulane wasn’t exactly helping itself at the dish. The Green Wave managed to produce another meager offensive performance, posting just three hits on the game. Poor hitting like this has plagued the Green Wave all season, and especially in their last three games, where they scored just one run. That’s a span of 25 innings.

Coach Jones said, “Our guys our pressing and everyday compounds that. The more we try to make sure they’re not it seems that we still have that. You know, every ball we barreled tonight was gloved, every ball was gloved. And it starts putting more pressure on you for whatever reason.”

Worse yet, the offense squandered an excellent start by Senior Conrad Flynn. He threw eight innings of two run baseball, and only one of the runs he allowed was earned. He threw 110 pitches on the night, and had six strikeouts, only to get the loss. He isn’t fazed by it though, understanding that things like this happen.

“All of us pitchers as a staff have looked in the mirror and said you know ‘what do we have to do as a team’ and if that means throwing more and stepping up and throwing strikes so we can go further in the game to save the pen then that’s what you’ve got to do,” Flynn said.

Tulane lacked a spark offensively tonight, but it doesn’t mean that the season is over. The Green Wave are 18-8 and can still climb back to .500 in conference if they win the series. They’ll need to step it up at the plate though.

Photo Credit: John Owens