Tulane at Rice

This weekend, Tulane traveled to Houston, Texas to take on the Rice Owls in a three game series. Unfortunately, car trouble on the way to Houston delayed the team from arriving until a little after 2:30 Saturday morning. A few minutes before Game 1, the two teams decided to play all three games on Saturday due to Sunday's rainy weather forecast. 


Game 1: 
Michael Harrison took the mound for Tulane in Game 1, coming off a week of elbow soreness dating back to his last appearance. Poor Tulane defense behind Harrison was a recurring trend of Game 1. In the first inning, The Owls loaded the bases after a single, a walk, and an error in the outfield. Harrison was able to battle back and record two consecutive strikeouts to end the frame unscathed. The top of the Green Wave's line up broke through with consecutive base hits and put three runs on the board in the top of the third inning, however, Rice responded the following half inning with three runs of their own on a double and a fielding error in the outfield. The Green Wave went quietly in their half of the fourth, but allowed six runs to score in the bottom half, pushing the score to 9-3 Owls. Rice would later tac on another run in the sixth. Tulane refused to go quietly, however. Relief pitcher Ian Sutton started off the top half of the seventh with a double down the right field line. The next two batters, Josh Woolford and J.R. deBart, hit consecutive singles to load the bases. With one out in the inning, Second baseman Alex Gutwillig, hit into a fielders choice, resulting in an out at the plate. Still down by 7 with two outs, Tulane left fielder Matt Kogan drove in one run on a base hit to right field. The next batter was Shortstop Blair deBart, who quickly fell down in the count 0-2. On the seventh pitch of the at bat, deBart drove a 2 RBI single into right field, scoring J.R. deBart and Alex Gutwillig to bring the deficit to only 4. Unfortunately, the offense stalled and the Wave fell 10-6. 

Top Game 1 performers:
#35 LF Matt Kogan: 2-4, RBI, RS
#12 SS Blair deBart: 3-4, HBP, 2RBI, RS 
#10 C  Brett Salomon: 2-4,2B, 2RBI


Game 2: 
Adam Friedant took the hill in Game 2 delivering an impressive 1-ER performance. The Green wave were able to take advantage of back to back errors in the field by The Owls with Sutton scoring from third on a wild pitch. Friedant continued to hit his spots, as he held the lead until an error in the infield allowed the leadoff hitter aboard in the bottom of the sixth, who would later score to tie the game at 1. The Green Wave put a runner in scoring position in the top of the ninth, but were unable to capitalize, leaving the game tied at 1. The Owls followed suit, putting the winning run at second base with 1 out. Ian Sutton fielded a subsequent base hit in right field, and fired a bullet to Brett Salomon behind the plate who applied the tag on a very close play. The runner was called safe and the game ended 2-1 in favor of Rice. 

Top Game 2 performers 
#7  P  Adam Friedant: 6.1IP, 4H, 1R, 0BB
#13 3B Josh Woolford: 2-3, 21B

Game 3:
The most unorthodox game was saved for last between these two squads, as Freshman Matt Kogan took the hill after a solid performance last week against FSU. Blair deBart got the Green Wave offense started in the top of the first with a base hit to right, and a steal of second base. deBart would later advance to third and score the first run of the game on two wild pitches. Brett Salomon, DH-ing in this game, continued to swing a hot stick with an RBI single to center, scoring Halliburton to put Tulane on top 2-0. Kogan stepped up in Game 3 delivering an absolute gem. In the fourth inning, however, Kogan surrendered 4 consecutive base hits to start of the frame, allowing the Owls to knot the game at two. He soon recovered, however, and got out of the inning with no further damage. The bottom of the fifth inning started in a similar way. Two consecutive singles put two Owls on with nobody out. A clutch double play up the middle, by middle infielders Alex Gutwillig and Blair deBart, put Kogan back on track who struck out the next batter to hold the game at 2-2. The became especially noteworthy in the top of the eight inning. The Green Wave were able to load the bases with nobody out. Pinch hitter, Adam Friedant, stepped up to the plate and hit a low-liner to first base, that appeared to hit the ground. No call was made by the umpire and complete confusion befell the Tulane base runners. Iannone sprinted home from third and beat an errant throw by the Rice first baseman, allowing a second Tulane run to score, seemingly putting the Green Wave ahead by two. The first base umpire later declared that the ball was caught in the air, resulting in 0 runs and two outs for Tulane. The next batter went down on strikes and a deflated Tulane squad ran back out on the field for more extra innings. Kogan, still pitching strong at this point, kept the team on track until the eleventh inning, when a wild pitch scored the game winning run. Tulane lost a very tough game 3-2. 

Top Game 3 Performers:
#35 P Matt Kogan: 9.2IP, 2ER, 7SO 


The Green Wave fought hard in all 25-innings of baseball played this past Saturday, despite the late arrival Friday night, and the absence of two key members. Rice is slated to travel to New Orleans this weekend to take on Tulane in three more games.