The Green Wave fell behind quickly and never found a way to come back, ultimately losing 11-3.
Well, the recent hot streak from the Tulane Green Wave might be cooling off a bit.
The Sluggerbirds dropped its series-opening contest to the Florida Atlantic Owls on Friday night, losing by a score of 11-3. Despite a close score through the first few frames, the program looked largely uncompetitive in the matchup.
Trey Cehajic earned the start on the mound for Tulane, and after a solid outing against the East Carolina Pirates, he slipped right back into the struggles he's faced for the past few weekends. The graduate student pitched 5.0 innings of action, giving up four runs on five hits with four walks and five strikeouts. With the loss, he is now 2-4 on the year.
After a relatively quiet start to the game, the Owls plated three runs in the third inning thanks to a pair of walks and a three-run home run by Nick Romano. Cehajic allowed another walk and a base hit before recording three quick outs to shut things down.
The Green Wave grabbed a run back in the top of the fourth inning, as Jason Wachs doubled and was later brought home on a single by Matthias Haas.
Florida Atlantic extended its lead to 4-1 with another home run, forcing Cehajic out of the game. LuisPablo Navarro entered the game on the mound, but he was quickly replaced by Julius Ejike-Charles after giving a pair of walks and a single to load the bases. Ejike-Charles walked in a run before escaping the inning, but not before his team held a 5-1 deficit.
The visiting squad chipped into the lead a bit in the top of the seventh with an RBI double by Tye Wood to score James Agabedis. Unfortunately, any little bit of momentum would stop there.
Ejike-Charles recorded two outs while also giving up a single and hitting a batter, and Jacob Moore was quickly brought in to replace him. Things quickly spiraled from there: another hit batter loaded the bases, and a triple-steal moved all runners up and allowed one to cross home plate. Another walk by Moore loaded the bases again, and Romano blew the game open with a bases-clearing double to put his team ahead 9-2. One more run came home on a double before the frame finally ended.
Tulane's final run of the night came in the top of the eighth inning on a double by Haas to score Wachs. The Owls answered with an RBI double of their own in the home half of the frame to solidify the commanding 11-3 victory.
Wachs finished the night 2-for-5 at the plate with two runs scored, while Haas had two RBI while going 2-for-5 as a batter. Agabedis went 2-for-3 with a run scored.
The Green Wave will need to dig deep and battle back through the next two games to salvage the series. However, that's much easier said than done: the program has won the first game in each of the previous two league series. The Olive Green and Sky Blue will look to right the ship and force a rubber match as it takes on FAU on Saturday at 3 p.m. CT.