The Tulane baseball team, which has already been through a lot of agony and ecstasy this season, flirted with each on Friday night.
Ecstasy won. After rallying from a 4-0 deficit in the sixth inning and outscoring the light-hitting Rice 6-4 in the eighth, only to see the lead disappear in the blink of a watch, the Green Wave erupted for eight runs in the highest of the eleventh and won 14-7 in the primary American Athletic Conference game at Reckling Park.
Tracy Mitchem got here back from an 0-2 deficit to guide off with the bases loaded, fouling off three pitches along the best way. The Wave then struck out Jack Ben-Shoshan, Gavin Schulz doubled off the wall, Ben Romano hit two more runs with a double off the wall, Marcus Cline singled to right field, and Jackson Linn crushed the ball over the wall beyond the left field wall.
When Jake Saum struck out Nathan Becker greater than 4 hours after the primary pitch, Tulane (14-8, 1-0) accomplished its fourth comeback from a four-or-more-run deficit, handing Rice (8-14) its eleventh loss in 16 games. It was also the Wave’s first five-homer game away from Turchin Stadium since April 9, 2019 in Southeast Louisiana.
“We hung in there and did enough,” Tulane coach Jay Uhlman said. “It was a mix of things, but they just continued to show their toughness and fortitude.”
Entering the sixth seed, Tulane had no homers, no runs and only two hits off Rice starter Parker Smith, doing nothing it did well outside the conference. Colin Tuft blew his first bunt attempt with runners on first and second in the fourth inning, then gave up a charge on third baseman Tobias Motley on his second try. Linn hit a runner on third and a single in the fifth.
Otherwise efficient starting pitcher Luc Fladda surrendered a double-run, two-out double in the third and a two-run, two-out triple in the fourth on an error by Schulz early in the inning.
“I was proud of Fladdy,” Uhlman said. “He was matching their guy’s throw across the pitch. The difference early in the game was that they bunted and got a hit for 2 runs, and we didn’t bunt and didn’t rating.
However, Tuft soloed a home run with no outs in the sixth inning of the two. Teo Banks doubled and scored on a single by Tyler Hamilton, pinch hitter Matthias Haas, making the rating 4-2.
“It (Tuft’s homer) kind of woke us up,” Uhlman said. “We weren’t sleepwalking. We just didn’t get the job done.”
An inning later, Brady Marget tied the rating at 4 after two runs to right field.
Banks led off the eighth with a solo foul shot from left field. Marcus Cline, who had hits in his last 4 at-bats, was one among the favorites in the insurance series.
The match then took a second dramatic turn. Linn struck out with two runners in scoring position and Connor Rasmussen went down with the bases loaded because the Fala didn’t take the lead.
After a double play in the underside of the eighth, Trey Cehajic gave up and walked two in a row, badly missing the strike zone. He was replaced by Jacob Moore and after taking a 0-2 lead, he secured a draw in the midfield.
Tulane missed a chance to go ahead in the ninth when Banks swung twice in a row at ball 4, striking out on Tuft’s leadoff single and Mitchem walked into a double play.
Having lost to UL Killers on their last weekend outing, the Wave were in danger of a similar situation happening again.
Moore (2-1), nonetheless, went on a downhill run, sidelining in the underside of the ninth and retiring all seven batters he faced in the tied game.
When Marget decided to start out the eleventh anniversary, the atmosphere modified for the last time. Rasmussen walked and Tuft was hit by a pitch to the arm, resulting in a nine-out single for Mitchem.
“Tracy can play really well from barrel to ball most of the time, and the longer the offense lasted, the better it was for Tracy,” Uhlman said. “It was a big deal.”
Tulane attacked Ben-Shoshan.
“We watched him against Houston (earlier in the week) and it was just curveballs,” Uhlman said. “I told Gavin to sit down on the breaking ball on the primary pitch and he broke it. And then the hell it opened.
Tulane will look to earn its first-ever regular season victory against Rice on Saturday at 2 p.m. The Wave went 4-23 against the Owls when each were members of Conference USA from 2006-14, after defeating them 2-1 in the New York Orleans Super Regional in 2015.
