Strong 8th Inning leads Tulane to Victory (again)

Tulane's bats continued their vanishing act for the first seven innings tonight, scoring a meager one run. But, like in Tulane's other victories this year, the bats reappeared in the eighth inning to snatch a victory from the clutches of defeat at Turchin Stadium. The win over George Washington saw Tulane score more runs than any of their other games, five, although they also allowed four. Part of the victory can be attributed to Garrett Cannizaro getting his first hit of the season.

He said that it "was a great relief to get it off my back, but it's an even better feeling that we won the game tonight, I guess I got it at the right time. You know I felt comfortable, I've been feeling comfortable the past three or four games, but I just wasn't getting any results from it."

It wasn't just Cannizaro who wasn't get results at the plate, the rest of the team struggled at the plate with runners in scoring position, stranding eight runners on base. While this may be the best offensive performance of the year for Tulane, it was less than stellar, and trailing through seven innings in all of their victories is still not becoming of a pre-season top 25 team.

Nick Pepitone closed out the game for Tulane, getting his second save of the year. The road getting their was not easy though, as the eighth inning heroics came from Nick Boullosa, who, on an admittedly questionable call, made it safely to first allowing Nick Schneeberger to score the winning run. Schneeberger had driven in Cannizaro on his triple the play before. Yet, this is a shaky recipe for success, as relying on eight inning outbursts does not allow Tulane to put the ball in Pepitone's hands. Coach Jones confirmed that this by saying "you've got to be able to get them, and let's be honest, you know we're not discounting anything; we were fortunate to win the ballgame tonight."

But win they did, and despite picking up another error on the left side of the infield, the Green Wave played tough baseball, and pitched well enough to let the offense come around. The pitching has let Tulane stay above .500 to this point (3-2), and if tonight's offense in the 8th showed anything, it's that the Greenies can hit, they just have to do it sooner.