Showing posts with label Tulane Baseball. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tulane Baseball. Show all posts
Credit: @katielentz on Twitter
Don't really know what else to put here. A strong effort on the mound allowed Tulane baseball to topple the #3 LSU Tigers 3-2 after 11 innings of baseball.

This is, without a doubt, the biggest upset that comes to mind since I started following the Green Wave. The LSU baseball powerhouse was unable to manufacture a run late in the game, the Wave ultimately capitalized with a two-out double followed by a game winning RBI by Richard Carthon.

That was the dagger, for sure. In a weird bit of cosmic irony though, it was former Tulane pitcher and LSU transfer Nate Fury who gave up the game winning run.

Kyle McKenzie, who entered the game as a closer, pitched four dominant, scoreless innings to keep the Green Wave's upset hopes alive. In the top of the 11th, he downed the final two batters on strikeouts to finish his outing.

This game was an absolute battle for the Green Wave. We didn't produce a single hit from the 4th until the 11th inning. However, the team stood strong, the pitching held up, and the Green Wave hung around long enough to pull out a momentous victory.

And for the first time since 2010, the Bayou Bengals will head back on I-10 without a win.
See you at the Box on April 22nd for round two.

Coming off of a four game winning streak, Tulane will pack its bags for a trip to Florida Atlantic University with the hope of spoiling their Homecoming game.

Bulletin board material of the week? Tulane is a 4-point underdog to the 2-6 Florida Atlantic. Never fear. In the six wins this season thus far, the Green Wave has played as the dog 5 out of 6 times. The lone exception? The folks out in Vegas did have faith in the Wave to beat the subdivision Jackson State.

Here's the link roundup. Catch up on your Green Wave.
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1. CBS Sports - Tulane is up to 46th in the latest BCS standings, making the Green Wave the highest performing team in C-USA thus far. If you put any value in that, both Rice and ECU are almost equally ranked going into Week 10.

2. The Advocate - The ongoing debate over the Tulane Legislative Scholarship program has now reached Ben Weiner Drive. The Advocate alleges that the baseball team, in particular, has feasted on these scholarships given by legislators across Louisiana.

3. ESPN College Football - ESPN continues to place Tulane in the R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl against UL-Lafayette. While worse snubs have happened, it seems unlikely that Tulane will crumble with FAU, UT-SA, and UTEP left on the schedule. The New Orleans Bowl is the lowest ranked bowl that C-USA currently is tied to.

4. USA Today Sports - In their re-rank of college football, they have elevated Tulane to 40th in the nation. The team was originally predicted to finish 109th on the year.

5. USA Today Sports - A second USA Today piece highlights Tulane and Duke as the "doormat" programs finally taking revenge on college football in 2013. Another nice profile for the squad.

6. Here's a fan video of the celebration after the Tulsa victory. I don't know that the sheer number of fans really reflect the team's progress yet, but the passion definitely seems to be picking up.


Tulane Baseball is in Houston, TX for the Conference USA Baseball Championship. I'm going to keep updating this post over the weekend to keep up with the action. But first...

THE STORY ON TULANE 

The Green Wave's storied baseball program has been in trouble this season. Coach Rick Jones faces the possibility of ending the season with the fewest wins in his 20-year career as head coach. That's never good.

Likewise, 11 seniors will graduate without a single postseason appearance during their time in Uptown --- that is, unless the Green Wave pulls off some magic this weekend.

The top eight C-USA squads make the tournament, and Tulane is seeded a modest #7. Each team is placed in a pod with three other schools - Tulane thus has #2 Southern Mississippi, #3 East Carolina, and #6 Houston on the docket. You can see the whole breakdown on C-USA's Championship Central page.

The top team from each pool advances to the final and plays for a berth into regionals.

GAME 1: TULANE VS. #2 SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI 

 Tulane lost its series against USM's Golden Eagles this season after a trip to Hattiesburg. The Green Wave will look to upset a vulnerable squad in Texas.

This is officially a wild one. Tulane scores in T6 to tie it at 7-7 after giving up 5 runs in the 5th inning.
Southern Miss trying to mount a comeback. 6-4 with Tulane leading in the bottom of the fourth.
Southern Miss at bat in B4 --- Tulane pulls pitcher.
Southern Miss homers, still trailing 5-2.
Greenies score twice in 2nd to move lead to 5-1.
Tulane gets to 3rd inning with 3-0 lead.
Texas is hot.

Basketball season is over, and the 2013 baseball campaign continues on... So mostly Tulane made headlines for football news this past week. Here is a link roundup.

1. Tulane might be sporting a new helmet look, according to SB Nation. Players showed off 7 new potential helmet designs with a few new logo schemes for the football team.

2. From NOLA.com, the Tulane matchup against new conference foe Louisiana Tech will be moved to a Thursday night (Sep. 12) for a national TV broadcast.

3. Tammy Nunez reports that ex-Tulane guard Ricky Tarrant is making his anticipated visit to Alabama this weekend. The CUSA second-team guard confirmed that report via Twitter.

4. Former Tulane QB merited some attention after his Tulane pro day, held at the Saints practice facility, the Hullabaloo reports. CB Travis Smith laid it down, as well.

That's all for now. Follow Fear the Wave on Twitter.

Tulane released it's 2012 baseball schedule today. Some of the highlights include a home series against Rice and the home game against LSU. Interestingly, Tulane will host Brown University of the Ivy League this year. All in all, the schedule doesn't appear to be overwhelmingly difficult. Conference USA play will always present its challenges, but so long as Tulane can stay healthy, they should have a fighting chance.
Freshman Wade Konvicka throws for the Green Wave, photo credit: Parker Waters



Tulane ran out of pitching last night, not figuratively, but literally. They had the lead, but with no arms left to protect it. They lost eight to six.

The Green Wave jumped out to the early lead against South Alabama last night at Tuchin, in a fashion that is becoming too familiar for Green Wave fans. The offense burst out of the gates with a five runs, but by the time the boys hit the middle of the game, it disappeared. While it may not be a focus thing, the Green Wave often seems to vanish during the middle innings. Why?

“When something like that happens, it can start with one pitch or one batter. It could be anything,” Junior Jeremy Schaffer said. “Maybe some guy goes up and doesn’t have a great at-bat and the next guy keeps into that and maybe presses a little it. When things like that happen, you just have to take a deep breath and instead of trying to be the guy that doesn’t mess up again, you have to try to go out and do something.”

Even if that is the mindset, it didn’t seem to work. So while the Green Wave offense vanished, the Jaguars were chipping away. Suddenly it was only a two run lead. It’s hard to blame the pitchers for the offense that South Alabama showed. The Greenies received a strong outing from Freshman Wade Konvicka, who was supposed to be redshirted this year. He threw five innings, allowing three earned runs, and left with a five to three lead.

“Wade didn’t have good stuff but he competed and I was really proud of his effort. He really competed. He didn’t over-power, he didn’t have good command of his breaking ball, but he competed,” Coach Jones said.

The offense woke up again in the bottom of the ninth, but it wasn’t enough. The Green Wave were down by three, and only managed to plate one. As it was, there were some bright spots. Jeremy Schaffer hit an inside the park homerun, his fourth homerun in four games. It was also the fifth game in a row in which the Green Wave has scored five runs or more. Offensive arousal is a good sign, and with some pitchers coming back, and players like Konvicka giving good performances, all is not yet lost.

Tulane lost to LSU seven to five at Turchin Tuesday, although they outhit the tigers.

More importantly, Senior Nick Pepitone is injured. He injured a muscle in his shoulder blade, an injury that Coach Jones compared to Jake Peavy's. He will miss at the least two to three weeks. He could miss the season, and if that was the case, his career would be over.

UPDATE:
Initial results suggest that it is only a strain, so he'll likely only miss a few weeks.


Sorry y'all, what happened was that the site we use, Coveritlive, decided it did not want to work. So, that's all for tonight, look for a recap after though.
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

By John Owens, Tulane Hullabaloo

UNO might be the worst team that Tulane will play this year. At 1-17 they are the Cleveland Cavaliers or Minnesota Timberwolves of Tulane's schedule; a team that could be easily overlooked in anticipation of coming opponents. In the first game of the series, Tulane showed no lack of concentration, handily defeating the Privateers nine to two. The ease by which they defeated UNO may have contributed to the seeming lack of concentration that they displayed Saturday in their victory, seven to four.

If Tulane played lackadaisically, then UNO was just the opposite, playing with a tenacity that kept them in the game even when they seemed out of it.

“Quite honestly, I thought UNO really played hard today. They played with some resolve and they played to win. And you know fortunately for us we made some really good defensive plays and had that second inning, that big inning that, but boy I’ll tell you UNO really came after us today,” Coach Jones said.

Tulane did most of their damage in the second inning, scoring five of their seven runs in that frame. However, in typical Tulane fashion, after the second, when leading six to zero, Tulane’s offensive fire quickly turned to offensive mire. Simply put, they put the game in cruise and kicked back. Seven runs is certainly a strong effort though, it just seems like they should be doing more against a team as poor as UNO. Even Junior Jeremy Schaffer, who drove in two, seems to think that Tulane should have played better.

“A lot of times the scoreboard doesn’t really dictate what happened during the game there were things that we felt we could have done a lot better throughout the course of the game,” Schaffer said.

Every part of the game was lacking for Tulane at times during the course of the game. The offense showed flashes of brilliance in the second, and defense made plays it had to. The same lacking feeling could be said for pitching as starter Sophomore Kyle McKenzie pitched well all game, with the exception of a three run fifth. Even his career-high eight strikeouts didn’t remove the burden of that inning, and his momentary lapse in concentration, from his shoulders.

“The issue with Kyle has been, and was today, a concentration issue. Two quick outs, he’s facing the nine-hitter, and he’s got a two-two pitch and instead of trying to get the out, it looked like to me he tried to get the strikeout and overthrew it. And then the next thing you know it’s two walks and until Kyle-it’s been an issue since he’s been here and it’s something that’s been addressed over and over again,” Coach Jones said.

McKenzie regrouped and threw a lights-out sixth, setting the table for Facundus and Pepitone to finish the ballgame. Tulane has taken the first two games of the series now, and is looking to sweep the Privateers on Sunday. It would mean a lot to the team to get a sweep, defeating a crosstown rival in the process.

“That would be huge. Going into every series (we are) trying to win the series. If you can win the first two games then Sundays so you can try to sweep. That is what we expect to do. We expected to do it before the series. We expect to do it today, and it would be big for our ball club to do it,” Junior Jeremy Schaffer said.

Photo Credit: Parker Waters

One inning is all it took for the Green Wave tonight, and it wasn’t the eighth. On a beautiful, windless night at Turchin, the Greenies took the field against Southeastern, a team that obliterated them thirteen to one earlier in the year. Although Coach Jones dismissed the idea of this being a revenge game when he said “you play so many games, it’s not like that at all,” Tulane played like they were trying to prove something, defeating Southeastern seven to three. This came as a result of a seven run first inning bonanza that gave the Greenies all they would need for the rest of the game.

This offensive performance was mirrored by another gritty pitching performance by the Green Wave staff. This time it came from Sophomore David Napoli, plucked from middle relief to start tonight. He worked out of a couple of jams on the evening, snagging double plays and strikeouts when he needed them most. “It was exciting to get the win but I don’t think I pitched as well as I could have pitched, command wise but it’s nice to get out there and get the win,” Napoli said. His control was the only issue in his five innings, as the only run he allowed was walked in. Nonetheless, Napoli came away with the win.

Napoli wasn’t the only player making the most of his start. Sophomore Bowen Woodsen, an infrequent starter, displayed all he had to offer at the plate and in the field tonight. The first inning was his inning. He smacked a three run homerun, the first of his career, off of Southeastern starter Sophomore Jordan Hymel. He ended up with two hits on the night. He made his mark in the field too, making a leaping catch in the first, which stopped the Southeastern bats after Napoli allowed a single to center.

Woodsen was a big piece of the biggest inning of the season for Tulane. The Green Wave batted around for the first time all year, and consequently scored the most runs in an inning. Redshirt Junior Matt Ryan got in on the act as well, driving in two, while both Freshman Briggs Barrios and Junior Jeremy Schaffer drove in one.

While it was a different cast of characters for Tulane, it was another win, bringing them to twelve and four on the season, and cementing their spot in the top-25. To describe it, Coach Jones said: “You win differently every day, and every game isn’t going to be the same and you can’t continue to think, ‘oh we’re not going to score’.” The Greenies showed that mentality tonight.

Photo Credit: Parker Waters


It's been a while. I know. My sincerest apologies. Tulane went on spring break, and I was unable to post. But now we're back, and back with a frenzy.

Good news (and some bad news) for baseball fans! The good news: Tulane baseball took two of three from ranked Wichita State, catapulting them back into the top-25 in two polls. The bad news: They only scored ten runs in the series. Six of those runs came in the first game. The finals were 6-5 Tulane, 1-0 Wichita, 2-1 Tulane. It's pretty clear that Tulane still hasn't found the recipe for offense yet, and that the pitching is really picking up the slack. The baseball will look to carry their momentum into a home game against Southeastern on March 15. Tulane lost to the Lions thirteen to one earlier in the season, and will look to avenge that loss. Southeastern has won four straight themselves. Then on the 16th of March, Tulane will host Alcorn State. Later on in the week the Greenies have UNO at home as well. This is an important home stand for the Wave, as they need to continue winning, especially if they want to get back to a regional this year. It will also be interesting to see if the bats get going.

Tulane's Women's basketball team played strongly in the C-USA tournament, reaching the championship game, upsetting Houston along the way. However, it looks like they will have to settle for a WNIT bid this year.

Even though Tulane's season is done in men's basketball, C-USA still has teams playing. As we all know, NCAA men's brackets came out, with a surprise that actually benefits C-USA. UAB, who was considered one of the longest shots to get in off the bubble did just that. This gives C-USA two teams in the field; Memphis being the other, having won the C-USA tournament.

Men's Tennis has been struggling lately, dropping five straight. They have a tough road swing coming up too, so climbing out of the hole they've dug could be difficult. They play at SMU next. Women's tennis on the other hand, has won three straight, and looks to continue this success at home. The ladies host Akron on March 15.

Women's golf had a tournament in Baton Rouge over break, in which they finished a 11th. While this is respectable, it's hardly the desired result for the Greenies, who are coming off a 3rd place finish in the Allstate Golf Championship. Nonetheless, Tulane has played well all year.

Track and Field recently hosted their first event since 2005 at Tad Gormley stadium in City Park. The women finished second, and the men third.

That about does it for Tulane sports, moving on to the pros.

Spring Training is in full swing in both Florida and Arizona, meaning of course that baseball is right around the corner. Besides the usual major outlets for the MLB, there are some very good, less well known blogs out there for all you sports junkies. Here are a couple:

The knuckle blog is an all sports website, however it has some very in-depth baseball analysis.

The NBA is coming down to the wire, and of course, that means teams are fighting for playoff spots. The Western Conference is considerably deeper this year, with two or three teams who are at or above .500 sitting on the outside, looking in. This is in contrast to the Eastern Conference which features a considerable drop off after the top teams. The New Orleans Hornets have won two straight, and are looking to secure a spot in the playoffs. They currently sit in the sixth spot, one game behind Denver, and one ahead of Portland.

NFL wise, a lockout is on, and it's hurting the players and coaches. However, the owners have the money to wait out the season, according to ESPN.com. All things considered, the draft is right around the corner, and if it happens, it is going to be one of the more convoluted drafts in a while, with no consensus number one pick.

Anyway, that is pretty much it for now, look for a live blog of the game against Southeastern, and ensuing recap.

Photo Credit: Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune








3/1/11

The bats came alive early for Tulane tonight, a surprising change of pace from the usual doldrums that plague them at the beginning of games. This came in the form of a two-run second inning, seemingly signaling support for Alex Byo on the mound. But despite all of their early promise, Tulane failed to mount any significant charges on offense until the ninth.

Two runs seemed like all Tulane would need for most of the night. Alex Byo, the Tulane starter, threw a gem, allowing only three base runners through his seven innings of work. It was Byo's first start of the year, coming off of back surgery last season, and it could hardly have been better. He said "Coming back from back surgery last year, and this summer, I was pushing it tonight going that far, but, I was able to push through it a little bit, and it definitely felt great to be out there throwing a lot of pitches again." He pushed effectively tonight, allowing no runs.

While Byo was pitching, Garrett Cannizaro and Brennan Middleton were hitting and driving in runs. These two were the offense tonight, combining for all three of Tulane's tallies. Cannizaro actually doubled his season total for hits, with three. Middleton drove in two, both of the runs in the second to mark his first RBI's of the year. However, it was Cannizaro that came through in the clutch for the Green Wave, driving in Nick DiMaggio for the game winning run in the ninth.

Getting there was harder than it should have been. After Byo's seven innings, Coach Jones handed the ball to Nick Pepitone, who hadn't surrendered a run all season. The anchor of the bullpen cruised through the 8th and entered the ninth with the same two run lead he had in the eighth. But something wasn't working. Pepitone was bouncing pitches, his usually solid control replaced by wildness usually unassociated with him. The first run that scored was a result of a hit batsmen and a double. The tying run for Northwestern state was delivered by a bouncing ball to short that was ruled an infield single.

Tulane had to score. Like four of their other wins this year, the Green Wave needed to come from behind to win. And come from behind they did.

Schaffer walked to lead off the inning, and was pinch run for by DiMaggio. After an error from the Demons, and some walks, Tulane had the bases loaded for Cannizaro. He delivered with a single to left that drove in the winning run for the Greenies. Of it he said:

"It's a situation that everybody wants to be in, and I was glad I was in the situation. Luckily enough I saw a breaking ball, I saw three of them actually and I took the first two for strikes and the third one, I figured he would come back again, and he did. I was able to put a good swing on it and drive it into the outfield."

The win marks Tulane's sixth of the year, bringing them to six and two. The Green Wave still aren't hitting consistently, something they'll have to do down the stretch. The pitching has been solid, and Cannizaro's emergence are good signs for Tulane. Fans have a reason to be hopeful.

Photo Credit: Parker Waters

At practice on Wednesday we caught up with Randy Leblanc and Coach Rick Jones. You'll have to wait for the Hullabaloo on Friday to read the Jones interview, but here is what Randy had to say about his first collegiate start for the Green Wave.

John Owens: "Just talk a little bit about it [his first start], you threw pretty well in that first game."

Randy Leblanc: "Yeah, I threw okay. I'm definitely a whole lot better than what I did. I threw 96 pitches in 5 innings which doesn't cut it for me. I know I only gave up two runs, but, the changeup was working real good, had a little bit of command issues late and I never really had a curveball; never did find that."

JO: "So you threw 96 pitches through 5 innings, how are you going to improve your pitch count?"

RL: "I've just got to start ahead on batters, I mean that was the biggest thing, I mean I went 2-0, 3-0 on a lot of batters and when you're throwing 20 pitches an inning it runs your pitch count up."

JO: "You had 8 k's through 5 innings, talk a little bit about that first strikeout. Was it any different than any other strikeout?"

RL: "A little satisfying I guess, to start off my college career with a strikeout. I actually feel pretty good about it."

JO: "What's the overall feeling, being a D-1 college pitcher now?"

RL: "It was fun, we had a good crowd, there were like 3,300 people or something like that. So, it was a lot of fun."


Tulane's bats were quiet again tonight, as they fell to Southeastern 13-1. Not only were the bats quiet, the pitching was poor, at least early; the Lions scored all of their runs in the first four frames. It quieted down after that, as both teams subbed often, giving playing time to the players who normally would not receive it.

Nearly all parts of the Greenie's game were off tonight. Aside from poor pitching and hitting, they also played atrocious defense, committing three errors. This accounted for 7 unearned runs. There were plays where no error was committed that defense was still poor. The Wave had a runner trying to steal second out easily if the throw was caught, but neither the second baseman nor the shortstop took control, and the ball went right between them into center.

It seems that there is plenty to work on for the Green Wave this year. Perhaps the top-25 ranking was premature for this team, or perhaps they aren't playing to potential, but either way they are sitting at 2-2 heading into a home series against GW this week.

Find the box score here:


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