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Photo courtesy of Tulane baseball
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Tulane baseball brought out their brooms as well as their
bats in this weekend’s opening series against Arkansas-Pine Bluff, which the
Green Wave took in sweeping fashion to open up the 2014 season.
Prior to this weekend, Tulane baseball fans everywhere,
myself included, were skeptical of the talent level the No. 23 ranked 19-man
recruiting class would bring to actual gameplay. Stellar performances by
newcomers JP France, Stephen Alemais, Garrett Deschamp, Jake Rogers and many
others this weekend showed that if this is the future of Tulane baseball, we
have nothing to worry about.
In a sweet Valentine’s Day home opener, the Green Wave came
out with bats swinging and coasted to an easy 7-0 win over the Golden Lions.
Tulane broke the game open early, putting two runs on the board in the first courtesy
of Richard Carthon – who was 2-3 with a triple and a run scored – and
freshman Stephen Alemais’ hard hit
double in his first college at bat.
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| France struck out 9 batters in his first appearance for the Green Wave |
Local freshman JP France put on a performance for the ages
in his college debut, going seven shutout innings with nine strikeouts and giving
up no runs on the three scattered hits he allowed the UAPB offense. France had
great command and speed of all four pitches, namely his dominating fastball
that hit 90-92 MPH on radar and left UAPB hitters swinging out of their shoes
in their shutout loss to the dominant young pitcher on the mound.
Saturday featured a double-header between the two teams and
did not come as easily to the young Green Wave squad as the previous day’s field
day at the plate. With fifteen freshmen just beginning to find their groove in
college baseball, mistakes are bound to be made, but two errors and a few
base-running mistakes still didn’t stop the boys in olive and blue from coming
home with two 3-1, 3-2 victories over the Golden Lions. RHP Randy LeBlanc took
the mound for Game 1 and, though he struggled initially to settle in on the
rubber, went six scoreless innings and allowed no runs on three hits, striking out
five. Fellow righty Kyle McKenzie earned his first career save after replacing
LeBlanc in the seventh despite walking two batters and allowing a run to score,
UAPB’s first of the weekend.
in Game 1 of the double header, going 2-3 with 2 RBIs.
Redshirt senior Tyler Mapes got the ball for Game 2 of the
double-header, making his first start since late February of last year when he
was sidelined with an elbow injury. Just ten months out of Tommy John surgery,
Mapes earned his first win of the season in four innings on the mound despite
giving UAPB an early lead on two runs at the start of the game.
Though UAPB outhit Tulane 9-5 in the second game of the day,
the Green Wave came away with the win, taking advantage of free bases given up
by Golden Lions pitching.
Sunday’s contest, the only game played at its scheduled time
this weekend due to the lighting issues at Turchin, brought Tulane fans out
wearing the much coveted sweep shirts, a sight unseen since the 2012 season
when Conference USA rival Southern Miss came to town that May. In the finale of
the four game series, Tulane would blow UAPB away with a 12 hit, 11-4 victory over
the Golden Lions.
Jones sent another freshman to the mound for Sunday’s game, a
right hander out of Lutcher, Corey Merrill. Merrill struggled in the first
inning, allowing two runs on a pair of hit batsmen and two singles, but the
freshman righty went his next three outings without letting any runners cross
the plate.
What really brought the Green Wave through were the hot bats
it brought to the plate in the first inning and every inning after that when UAPB
made a cut on the Tulane lead. Freshmen and familiar faces alike took batting
practice off of opposing pitcher Dixon Marble, who gave up 6 runs on 6 hits and
an error in the first inning alone. When UAPB threatened in the sixth by
putting two more runs up, Tulane answered, combining five runs in the next two
innings at the plate. Freshman catcher Jake Rogers was one of three
Tulane batters to earn his first hit in Sunday's
game
This weekend, Tulane showed a newfound aggression at the
plate that has been absent for the last four years. Pitching was dominant, and defense
was solid and consistent. If the Green Wave can keep this up next weekend when
the team hits the road to open up conference play at Louisiana Tech, a trip to
Regionals should be in Tulane’s near future.
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