Tulane attempts to right the ship after a three game losing streak today at Turchin. The Green Wave hosted Houston in the second of a three-game series, and failed to turn things around, losing five to two.
The Greenies opened the game with Redshirt Junior Robby Broach on the bump, andon the first pitch he threw Houston’s Freshman Landon Appling singled to left, and later scored. After two rather poor outings from Broach, a one run first inning was not a reassuring sign.
Broach got himself in another jam in the third allowing two hits and walking a batter to load the bases, but fortunately induced a double play ball to second to get out of it. In the fourth he didn’t manage to escape it, allowing another run. Broach ended with a mediocre outing, but mediocre was better than his prior two starts were awful.
“I felt okay. I had my curveball today and I was able to throw it for strikes. When I needed to I was able to battle through some innings,” Broach said. “It was definitely an improvement from last week. I’m not quite where I want to be, but I think it was an improvement from last week.”
He was unable to continue his Houdini act in the fifth, allowing two to score in the frame. His efforts weren’t helped by a questionable call on a smash ground ball up the third base line. It was eventually declared a fair ball, but Coach Jones disagreed, and came out to vehemently argue. His appeal as to no avail in the end, and Houston had plated two by the end of the inning.
Junior Jeremy Schaffer shared his thoughts on the calls going the other way. “It was just one of those days where it seemed like we weren’t getting the breaks and unfortunately we weren’t able to overcome that. But we can’t look back at a game and pinpoint one call and say that cost us the game,” he said. “There were plenty of other things we could have done as a team. Offense, pitching, base running, everything. We just weren’t able to do that today. Yeah we did get bad breaks, but that’s baseball and winning teams find a way to overcome that, and I think we are a winning team. Just today we weren’t able to do that.”
On the flip side, Tulane’s bat’s showed some life on the afternoon equaling Houston with ten hits on the afternoon. While they were more aggressive at the plate, the lineup’s inability to push runners across the plate was what ultimately doomed them. In later innings Tulane’s bats did show more life in the later innings, but they were too far behind for it to matter.
Senior Gunner Wright took over for Broach in the sixth inning, inheriting a four run deficit in the process. He fared little better than Broach. Gunner hit to batsmen and allowed a series of hits that allowed Houston to score one more. Freshman Andrew Garner took over for him, and managed to salvage the inning, forcing a ground ball for the final out.
Tulane is missing something right now. It would be easy to say it’s the pitching, but the embattled staff is working through their issues. In the end, Coach Jones summed it up best.
He said, “We’re not playing very good baseball. That’s for sure. When you get excited about hitting the ball out of the infield, you know you’re not swinging the bats very well. (Today was) another day where our offense has just been (weak).”
Photo Credit: John Owens
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