NEW ORLEANS – The Tulane University baseball team (14-13) defeated the University of Memphis (11-15), 8-2 in game four of its series on Saturday inside Greer Field at Turchin Stadium.
Eight Tulane starters recorded a hit and six scored at least one run which was more than enough offense for the Wave pitchers as the team’s record jumped over .500 for the first time in two weeks.
“Good series win for the Green Wave,” head coach Travis Jewett said. “For us to have a narrow defeat on Thursday and have to win three games in a row to win the series, I’m real proud of the boys. It all starts on the mound. If you look at our pitchers all weekend it was very good for us to contain them as our starters did. We all feel good about what happened this weekend.”
Righty graduate student Trent Johnson took the mound for the Green Wave and tossed seven scoreless innings while striking out two and allowing only three hits.
“I felt good today,” Johnson said. “Really healthy and strong. I didn’t have my best stuff as far as control and off-speed goes, so I had to figure out ways to get outs. We played really good defense today which is a big factor.”
Tulane starting pitching was superb all series. The starters threw a combined 26 innings and allowed only five earned runs while striking out 25 batters.
Freshman JT Durham got the start for Memphis and allowed four runs, three earned, on eight hits over four and a third innings of work.
Tulane started the scoring in the bottom of the first when senior Frankie Niemann lifted a sacrifice fly to center field, scoring sophomore Collin Burns.
Sophomore Simon Baumgardt added to the Green Wave lead with a solo home run to left in the fourth inning to make it a 2-0 ballgame. Later in the inning with runners on first and second, LaPrairie singled to right where Memphis misplayed the ball, allowing two runners to score and extending Tulane’s lead to 4-0.
Memphis plated a run in the seventh to make it a 4-1 game.
Baumgardt collected another RBI in the seventh inning with a sacrifice fly that scored freshman Bennett Lee. Centerfielder Jared Hart then singled down the right field line to score first baseman Luis Aviles from second and stretch Tulane’s lead to 6-1.
Tulane took an 8-1 lead in the bottom of the eighth thanks to an RBI single by Aviles that scored Lee and LaPrairie.
Memphis added a run in the ninth, but couldn’t get any closer than 8-2.
Up Next
Tulane travels to USF for a four-game-series starting with a double-header on Friday.
{Press release courtesy of Tulane Athletics}
