After the COVID-19 outbreak ended the 2020 season prematurely, Tulane Green Wave Baseball opens their 2021 season at home against in-state rival University of Louisiana at Lafayette on Friday, Feb. 19. 

In 2020, the Green Wave baseball team was off to a scorching hot start, winning 15 of their first 17 games, including the final nine straight games before the season came to an abrupt halt. By the middle of March, the Green Wave ranked as high as 20th in the nation.

Green Wave baseball returns to the diamond with star pitcher Braden Olthoff, whose resume includes a 2020 All-American nod, pre-season third team All-American in 2021 and preseason American Athletic Conference Pitcher of the year, after recording a microscopically low 0.32 ERA over 28 innings in 2020. Olthoff also threw the first six innings of a combined no-hitter, Tulane’s first since 2005. Bolstering the rotation is returning southpaw Jack Aldrich who also recorded a sub-2.00 ERA, while averaging over a strikeout per inning pitched. 

Challenges loom as the team will compete without key starters Grant Matthews, Ty Johnson, Jonathan Artigues, Luke Jannetta and Luke Glancy, all of whom graduated without having the opportunity to play out a full season during their senior year. Speedy Hudson Haskin, who was drafted 39th overall by the Baltimore Orioles in this past year’s 2020 MLB draft, will be missed in centerfield.

Keep an eye out for third baseman Trevor Minder and catcher Luis Aviles who return one year removed from a season where they batted .359 and .394, respectively, and exceptionally slugged .609 and .697.

Confidence remains high that Travis Jewitt, a former assistant at baseball powerhouse Vanderbilt University, entering his fourth year as head coach, will continue to steer Green Wave baseball along the same victorious path as last season.