The Green Wave used a big first inning to jump ahead of the Privateers and never looked back.
The Tulane Green Wave baseball team got back on track on the diamond on Tuesday night with a solid 5-2 midweek win over the New Orleans Privateers. With the win, the Sluggerbirds regained possession of the coveted Pelican Cup and avenged February's 11-3 loss to UNO.
Jack Brafa earned the win on the mound for the home team to improve his record to 2-0 on the year. The starter went 3.0 innings, giving up just one hit while striking out four. Most notably, Brafa didn't give up a single free base on walks or hit batters.
At times this year -- especially lately -- Tulane has allowed its opponents to jump out to a big lead in the first inning, making it much more difficult to come back and win the game. This time, the Green Wave was on the opposite side of that.
After a clean top of the first inning, the Olive Green and Sky Blue took advantage of some shaky pitching by the Privateers. Kaikea Harrison doubled to set the tone quickly and start what would be a massive inning for the home team. Tanner Chun was hit by a pitch, and Jason Wachs demonstrated great awareness at the plate to draw a walk and load the bases... still with no outs in the inning.
New Orleans took a quick visit to the mound to attempt to settle pitcher Reid Leonard, but it seemed to have the opposite effect. Nate Johnson drew a bases-loaded walk to bring in the first run of the frame. Hugh Pinkney and Tye Wood were walked in the subsequent at-bats, and just like that, Tulane had pulled ahead 3-0, still with no outs in the inning.
Following a pitching change, Luke Hymel grounded out to bring in yet another run for the home team. Though the Green Wave wasn't able to plate any additional runs after the first out, the 4-0 lead would prove to be enough to win the game.
The Privateers added their first run of the game by stealing home plate in the top of the fifth inning, and cut Tulane's lead to 4-2 with an RBI single by Kareh Valentin in the top of the seventh. Not to be outdone, the Sluggerbirds responded in the bottom half of the frame with a single by Johnson to drive in Harrison.
Sam Larson handled much of the late-inning work on the mound, picking up five strikeouts. Beau Sampson entered the game to strike out the final batter.
Believe it or not, Tulane had a bit of a quieter night offensively. It had just four hits -- two from Harrison and one apiece from Johnson and Brett Rowell. Free bases would prove to be the Green Wave's bread and butter, as the team picked up eight walks and saw three batters hit by pitches. On the other hand, there were only two strikeouts for the program all night.
Tulane will look to ride the momentum of the Tuesday win into the second midweek game of the week. The Green Wave will host the Northwestern State Demons on Wednesday at Greer Field at Turchin Stadium. First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m.