A Season To Remember
Jul 19, 2005 | Baseball
July 19, 2005
NEW ORLEANS, La. - It was a season of high expectations, highlight-reel defensive plays, dominant pitching performances and most of all, victories - of both the blowout and come-from-behind variety.
And when the dust settled on the 2005 Tulane baseball season, the Green Wave found themselves in Omaha, Neb. for the College World Series. Along the way, Tulane set a school mark for winning percentage at .824 after going 56-12, tied the school single-season record for wins, won the Conference USA regular-season title, shared the C-USA Tournament crown, swept three games in the NCAA New Orleans Regional and bounced back from a game-one loss in the NCAA New Orleans Super Regional to win two straight and advance to Omaha for the second time in school history.
"This was a tremendous year for our club," Tulane head coach Rick Jones said. "To win as many games as we did and play in Omaha are great accomplishments. Sure we would have liked to stay longer (in Omaha), but only one team goes home with the championship."
"We had 56 wins, and we played in the College World Series and had a team grade-point average of over 3.0. I'm happy to coach these guys, and it's something to build on. I think we'll be back (to the College World Series), and we'll be back pretty soon."
A school record-tying three student-athletes were tabbed All-Americans as junior southpaw Brian Bogusevic claimed Louisville Slugger first-team, National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association second-team, and Baseball America and American Baseball Coaches Association third-team recognition, junior utility athlete Micah Owings was named Louisville Slugger second-team and Baseball America third-team All-American, while senior shortstop Tommy Manzella was named to the second team by the ABCA. Manzella became the sixth Green Wave baseball player to earn Academic All-America honors, garnering third-team honors on the ESPN The Magazine University Division Baseball Team, and became just the second player in Tulane history to claim both academic and athletic All-America recognition in the same season (joining baseball's James Jurries in 2002).
"All three of these guys are so deserving of the honors they received," Jones said. "When you look back at Tommy Manzella's career, he goes from a skinny middle infielder who was used primarily for his glove to a complete player who was a stellar defender and could hit for average and power at the plate. Bogusevic was a guy who came in with a lot of high school accolades, but had to adjust from playing high school ball in Chicago to playing college ball in southeastern Louisiana. That's a pretty tough jump, but he handled it very well.
"Then you add in Micah Owings who wound up leading us in the triple-crown categories offensively and also had the team lead in strikeouts. He is a special player and did nothing but help us in every way throughout the season."
In addition, Owings was tabbed C-USA Player of the Year, third baseman Brad Emaus claimed Freshman of the Year honors, and Jones was named the league's Coach of the Year for the third time in his career. Owings and Emaus were joined on the C-USA first team by Bogusevic, Manzella and junior centerfielder Nathan Southard; senior catcher Greg Dini and junior southpaw J.R. Crowel garnered second-team all-league honors, while Emaus and rookie reliever Sean Morgan were named to the C-USA All-Freshman Team.
THE SETUP
The tone for the 2005 season was set late last season. In June 2004, as the Green Wave team packed their bags following a Super Regional loss to eventual national champion Cal State Fullerton, there was a buzz around the Tulane team. Following the season-ending, 10-7 loss to the Titans, team members began looking forward to 2005 and making plans for another stretch run in the NCAA postseason.
 Junior southpaw Brian Bogusevic, who was drafted in the first round by the Houston Astros, led Tulane's vaunted pitching staff with 13 wins and a 3.25 ERA in 2005.  | |
Then the rumors began - All-American Micah Owings was going to transfer from Georgia Tech after two seasons with the Yellow Jackets. A 19th-round draft pick of the Chicago Cubs, Owings toured several schools during the summer, including Texas and Arizona State. In late August, Owings announced his intention to enroll at Tulane. The buzz grew louder as a result, and the volume would only increase a couple of months later when Baseball America released its College Preview edition.
"Micah saw his draft stock slide a little bit from when he was in high school and I think he just wanted a change of scenery," Jones said. "When he came here for his visit, we had everything set up to show him what the Tulane experience offered, and he told me he was going to go home and pray about it. He called a few days later and asked if I had a jersey for him, and I said `Sure.'"
The Jan. 31, 2005 edition of Baseball America was just like every other college preview edition the national publication had ever produced. There were teams to watch, preseason All-Americans, postseason projections and the Top 25. The two noticeable differences this year, however, were the faces on the cover as well as the team atop the preseason poll.
Tulane fans who purchased the publications saw a familiar face in Brian Bogusevic and a soon-to-become popular gaze of Micah Owings staring back. In addition, the word "Tulane" was next to the No. 1 spot in the preseason poll.
"The No. 1 ranking was nothing but a positive," Jones said. "Some people viewed it as a negative in the sense that there was too much pressure put on the team. While it certainly made us the team to beat, I don't think the team ever really got too caught up in it. Besides, we always felt that you won't be the team to feel the pressure if you're too busy applying it. That was our goal all season, and the team did a good job of doing that day in and day out."
THE DELIVERY
With a bullseye planted firmly on their chests, the Tulane team hit the field for a regular-season game for the first time on Feb. 11 and set the tone for the year with a 9-0 shutout of Southeast Missouri State, eventually going on to sweep the Redhawks in the three-game weekend series.
The sweep was the first of eight three-game sweeps for the Green Wave, including five in Conference USA action. In addition, Tulane finished the regular-season with a perfect 10-0 mark against teams from the state of Louisiana as the Green Wave took all three games from cross-town foe UNO and in-state opponent Nicholls State, two games from arch-rival LSU and single contests from McNeese State and Northwestern State.
 Shortstop Tommy Manzella returned for his final collegiate season and went on to earn first-team All-Confernece USA honors, second-team All-America recognition by the American Baseball Coaches Association and third-team Academic All-America accolades from the College Sports Information Directors of America as a senior. | |
The crowd for the first game against the Horned Frogs was electric. A surprise afternoon shower had forced the postponement of game one to a doubleheader on May 20, but the Green Wave put away TCU in that game with a 5-2 victory.
Tulane dropped the nightcap to the Horned Frogs, but bounced back to win the regular-season finale 5-1, to finish with a school-record 24-6 mark in league play. The conference record was the second-best in league history and the Green Wave's four-game lead in the C-USA race was just one win shy of the conference record.
The C-USA Tournament was expected to be a tuneup for the NCAA postseason, and the Green Wave did not disappoint as Tulane defeated UAB 8-6 in the first round before rolling to a 16-3, 10-run-rule shortened victory over East Carolina in the quarterfinal and posting a 10-1 win over Houston in the semis to set up a rematch with TCU in the championship game.
Mother Nature, however, did not cooperate as heavy rains and hail pummeled Hattiesburg, Miss., on Championship Sunday, which forced the cancellation of the game as Tulane and TCU were named tournament co-champions.
The day was not without its highlight, however, as the NCAA announced Tulane as one of 16 regional hosts. One day later, the Green Wave were tabbed the No. 1 National Seed, which meant the team in green would have home-field advantage throughout the postseason.
"We played very well throughout the year, especially in the Conference USA Tournament," Jones said. "We felt that we had a difficult draw in the Regional, but we had a talented, experienced team that had been through this before and knew what it took to win."
TURCHIN'S LAST HURRAH
Playing in front of a packed house in each of the three NCAA New Orleans Regional contests at Turchin Stadium, the Green Wave posted a 17-7 opening-round win over Southern before defeating Alabama in back-to-back (although rain-delayed) contests, 10-4 and 7-4, to advance to the Super Regionals for the third time in school history.
 Sophomore reliever Daniel Latham was a postseason star as he claimed four saves and a win during the Regional, Super Regional and College World Series. | |
Tulane got off to a good start in the decisive contests with a two-run first, but the Owls chipped away with single runs in the second, third and sixth innings to take a 3-2 advantage. The Green Wave appeared to put the game away with four runs in the top of the eighth to take a 7-3 lead, but Rice answered with three runs in the bottom of the frame to make it a brand new ballgame at 7-all.
The Tulane team looked adversity in the eye. The season and a trip to the College World Series were on the line, and once again, adversity would blink first as the Green Wave scored another three runs in the top half of the ninth and retired the Owls in order in the home half of the frame to spark a wild celebration.
"When we got that last out in the Super Regional, that was an electric moment," Jones said. "We're playing our last game in the old Turchin Stadium (which is slated to be renovated for the 2006 season) and we're playing for a spot in the College World Series. To see the crowd celebrate the way it did and to watch our team make that victory lap around the stadium, that was one of the greatest moments of my life."
SUCCESS STORY
In Omaha, the Green Wave - still with that No. 1 bullseye on its chest -- opened the 2005 College World Series with a come-from-behind, 3-1 win over No. 2 Oregon State. But the dream of a national championship was shattered as Texas and Baylor defeated Tulane two and three days later, respectively, to end the Wave's season. The losses, however, did nothing to tarnish what the team accomplished in 2005.
 Tulane head coach Rick Jones was named Conference USA Coach of the Year and National Coach of the Year by Baseball America after leading the Green Wave to a school record-tying 56 wins and the program's second trip to the College World Series in the past five years. | |
"Going to the College World Series is a tremendous accomplishment, and we'll see the benefits starting this summer when we start recruiting kids for next season" Jones said. "When you play in Omaha, the players know more about your team. They've seen you play on TV, and now with two trips to the College World Series in five years, we've got a lot of credibility.
"A lot of credit, however, has to go back to the first couple of recruiting classes that we had here. Those are the guys who helped build the program to where it is today. They were the ones who fought just to get in regionals. Now we're playing in the College World Series, and I guarantee they're celebrating now just as much as the current players are."
A school-record 145,084 fans - 3,720 per game - rattled the turnstiles for Tulane home games in 2005 and the Green Wave faithful set eight of the Top 10 Turchin Stadium single-game attendance records during the year. Fans endured the cold, cutting winds of the February games, braved the heat of May and weathered heavy rains and blistering sun in June during the postseason.
The season may have ended on a balmy, June 21st night in Omaha, Neb., but the memory of what the team accomplished will live on in Tulane lore forever.
