Baseball To Open Home Schedule Friday vs. Villanova
Feb 14, 2002 | Baseball
Feb. 14, 2002
NEW ORLEANS, La. -
Complete Release in PDF Format
Download Free Acrobat Reader
The Tulane University baseball team returns to action after a five-day layoff on Friday when the Green Wave plays host to Big East opponent Villanova at 6:30 p.m. in the first of a three-game series at Turchin Stadium.
Tulane has not lost a home opener under the direction of ninth-year head coach Rick Jones, and the Green Wave have played well at home since the dedication of Turchin Stadium in 1991 and tallying a 290-90-1 record (.758) at the on-campus facility.
Last weekend, Tulane dropped a three-game series at Pepperdine, 2-1, winning the finale on Sunday after dropping a pair of games to open the year. As a team, Tulane is hitting .388 with a .698 slugging percentage. Junior Aaron Feldman paces the squad with a .643 batting average, and senior James Jurries is hitting .467 with three home runs, a double and six RBI.
As a staff, Tulane pitchers have a cumulative 11.88 ERA. Obviously, the Green Wave will look to lower that mark against the Wildcats as well as cut down on the number of free passes they issued as Tulane has walked 16 batters in three games.
Expected starters for Tulane this weekend are a trio of lefties in senior Beau Richardson on Friday, junior Nick Bourgeois on Saturday and freshman Ray Liotta on Sunday.
Richardson pitched well in the season opener, but drew a no decision. Bourgeois, who is making his first start of the season, pitched in Saturday's game at Pepperdine, but came out of the pen. Liotta, meanwhile, will be looking to prove his first outing was a case of freshman jitters after giving up seven runs in just 1/3 of an inning on Saturday against the Waves.
This weekend's series marks the season-opener for the Wildcats as Villanova is coming off a 25-25-1 season in 2001 and is picked to finish 9th in the Big East in 2002 after going 10-16 in league play a year ago.
The Wildcats will be under new management as Joe Godri begins his first season as head coach at Villanova. Godri has a host of returning talent with 21 lettermen and five starters back from a year ago, including starting pitchers in Brian Slocum, Tom Kandybowicz and John Yeager. Kandybowicz led Villanova with 62.0 innings pitched in 2001 and Yeager paced the club with seven victories.
Offensively, Chris Graziano is the Wildcat's top returning player after finishing second on the team with a .444 batting average last season. Brian Newbold also returns after ranking second on the Villanova team with 11 homers.
This weekend's three-game series against Villanova marks the first of 20 consecutive games the Green Wave will play in the state of Louisiana, and first of five weekend series' to be played at Turchin Stadium. After the Wildcats, Tulane hosts weekend outings with George Washington (Feb. 22-24), UCLA (March 1-3), Rutgers (March 8-10) and Conference USA foe Charlotte (March 15-17) while playing midweek games against Nicholls State, UL-Lafayette, LSU, Southeastern Louisiana and UNO.
For ticket information, call the Tulane ticket office at (504) 861-WAVE or log onto the internet at www.tulanegreenwave.com.
