The Tulane Green Wave baseball team will host Creighton in final non-conference series as they look to head into American play on a high note.
The Tulane Green Wave baseball team has had a tough few games on the diamond, but the team will look to turn that around as it hosts the Creighton Bluejays for the final non-conference weekend series of the season.
The Sluggerbirds have faced their fair share of competition over the past week, first taking on the 17th-ranked TCU Horned Frogs in a weekend series out in Texas. Though Tulane ultimately lost the series, the team did manage to steal a decisive victory in the second game of the weekend, and rallied up until the final out in the third game to nearly stun the Horned Frogs.
The Green Wave then took their talents to Keesler Federal Park in Biloxi, Mississippi, to take on the third-ranked Mississippi State Bulldogs in the Hancock Whitney Classic. The program was able to jump ahead early, with two runs scored in the first inning and a 7-2 lead built by the seventh inning, but State poured on nine runs across two half innings and handed Tulane the 11-7 loss.
Despite the recent struggles, success early in the season indicates that the program is still on track to compete with the best of the best in the American Conference. The Green Wave opened the year with three consecutive series wins against the Loyola-Marymount Lions, Harvard Crimson and Eastern Kentucky Colonels. Outside of the series loss to TCU, weekend pitching has looked mostly solid, and there are plenty of talented bats up and down the order. Slumps are part of baseball -- and though most players have struggled in one game or another throughout the year, for the most part, the struggles haven't been consistent.
Additionally, four of the team's eight losses on the year have come during midweek contests -- a time when fewer arms are available, and younger players are often tasked with keeping things together on the mound. While the expectation is that midweek pitchers can grow as the season goes on and find ways to contribute heavily to the program, the reality is that most still struggle. Unfortunately for Tulane, many of these pitchers have had a hard time stretching success across innings -- but that doesn't take away from the team's success in series, which far outweigh other games played.
Now, to the Green Wave's opponent. Creighton enters the weekend series with a 5-8 overall record, though the Bluejays have strung together some recent success with a series win over Gonzaga University. Creighton also jumped out to a 4-1 lead over the defending national champion LSU Tigers on Tuesday, though the team would go on to lose that contest. However, the team is just 2-4 on the road -- and Tulane, on the other hand, is 5-1 at home.
First pitch for the first game of this weekend's series between the Bluejays and the Green Wave is set for Friday at 6:30 p.m. CT at Greer Field at Turchin Stadium. Saturday's second game starts at 2 p.m. CT, and Sunday's third game is slated to begin at 12 p.m. CT.