Baseball drops final two, is swept by San Diego through weekend series

In a four-game series against the San Diego University Toreros (10-3), Tulane baseball (3-12), dropped its final two on Saturday and Sunday. The Wave fell to the Toreros 5-4 on Saturday and 6-2 on Sunday at Greer Field in Turchin Stadium.

The Wave entered the stadium on Saturday looking to bounce back from losses on Thursday and Friday but found itself in a hole early on as San Diego took a 3-0 lead after 4 innings. Senior outfielder Lex Kaplan scored off an RBI double from freshman infielder Cody Hoese. Not long after, senior infielder Hunter Williams doubled to left field, driving home Hoese. The Wave would wrap up the inning on an RBI single from senior outfielder Jarret DeHart, allowing sophomore Grant Witherspoon to score the tying run to make the score 3-3 after five innings.

Unfortunately, a two-run inning capped by scores on a passed ball and a sacrifice fly would put San Diego up by two runs once more at the top of the sixth 5-3. Freshman catcher Paul Gozzo would RBI in the bottom of the sixth, bringing Hoese in for the score, but it would not be enough to catch the Toreros. Neither Tulane nor San Diego would score for the rest of the game, and the Wave would exit the third game of the series with a narrow 5-4 loss.

Redshirt junior pitcher J.P. France got the start for the Wave on Saturday, finishing with four strikeouts through seven innings. Redshirt sophomore Brandon Issa replaced France in the eighth inning.

On Sunday, an early lead from an RBI single and an RBI double put Tulane at an early deficit once again. Down 2-0 in the bottom of the third inning, senior infielder Jake Willsey would score off a Kaplan RBI single, cutting the deficit 2-1 at the end of the third inning. Tulane, however, would not score again after that until the bottom of the ninth inning when senior infielder Hunter Hope hit a solo home run. San Diego scored once in the fifth and ninth innings and twice in the seventh. Both seven inning scores were from wild pitches from graduate student Ted Andrews.

Sophomore Ross Massey earned the Sunday start, pitching for more than six innings and throwing six strikeouts. Redshirt junior Sam Bjorngjeld and freshman Jack Hogan each pitched an inning each to finish the game.

After a four-game series at home, Tulane will face its next opponent on the road as it travels to face Nicholls State at 6 p.m. Wednesday in Thibodaux, Louisiana.

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