Baseball's St. Michael's Day Festivities Another Huge Success
Nov 4, 2007 | Baseball
Nov. 3, 2007
NEW ORLEANS, La. - Whenever Green Wave head coach Rick Jones is approached to talk about his program, the 15th-year skipper is rarely at a loss for words.
On Saturday, however, he was downright verbose as the Tulane University baseball team held its annual St. Michael's Day festivities in the morning before playing three, three-inning intrasquad games in the afternoon at Turchin Stadium.
Members of the Green Wave team assisted students of St. Michael's Special School - a New Orleans institute designed to help students with major learning difficulties which hinder their ability to achieve success in a regular class setting - play a pair of softball games, and both the Tulane team and the St. Michael's students shared a lot of smiles along the way.
"We had a lot of parents out here and a lot of appreciative people and a lot of warm moments," Jones said. "We did it last year and obviously it wasn't here, it was at Zephyr Field - and when we were in Lubbock, we couldn't do it. We've done this for close to a decade now and St. Michael's is our partner school. Today is always a day that our kids will remember and something the kids at St. Michael's will never forget.
"It's win-win for everybody involved. It's a community service project that has become synonymous with our program and one we're really proud to be a part of. It's just a great partnership between Tulane and St. Michael's and everybody wins here. There are no negatives in doing something like this."
With 40 St. Michael's Special School students on hand, the group was divided by age and each age group played a five-inning softball game. Members of the Green Wave squad helped lead the St. Michael's students in stretching exercises and later helped them hit, run and throw.
Following the St. Michael's Day celebrations, the Tulane team continued its Fall World Series. In an unorthodox splitting of a traditional nine-inning game, Jones had his club play three, three-inning contests and the Black Attack took the series 2-1. The Black won games one and three 1-0, while the Green Machine claimed the middle contest, 7-0.
"It was a long day for our guys and you could see the fatigue set in there late both at the plate and on the mound. I thought this was one of the better days we've had here as far as what we were able to do this morning with St. Michael's and good pitching performances and good solid defense this afternoon."
Machine starter Drew Zizinia, who pitched in two-thirds of Saturday's mini-games, posted 11 strikeouts while scattering five hits and a walk in 6.0 innings of work. Not to be outdone, Attack hurler Josh Zeid had six punches while allowing just one earned run (three unearned) on four hits in 5.0 frames.
Sophomore shortstop Josh Prince gave the Black Attack the only run they needed in game one, sparking a two-out rally in the bottom of the first and coming home to score on an RBI-single by rookie third baseman Rob Segedin.
Game two, however, was all Machine, as Team Green plated three runs in the fourth, one in the fifth and another three in the sixth. The big blow of the ballgame came in the sixth when junior catcher Jared Dyer belted a three-run homer to left to account for the game's final runs.
In game three the combination of right-handers Trey Martin and Mason Griffin kept the Machine off the scoreboard while the offense was able to generate a run in the eighth to clinch the day's three-game series.
Freshman Matt Ryan opened the eighth with a leadoff double and advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by junior outfielder Scott Powell. Junior Drew Allain, who began the day as the team's right fielder before moving behind the plate for the final three innings, brought Ryan home with a sacrifice fly to right.
"Drew Zizinia had a really good day," Jones said. "That was very impressive. Josh Zeid was good until he tired, and that's because he hasn't been able to condition like the other pitchers due to a bad ankle which he'll have minor surgery on once the fall is over. I thought those two guys really pitched well. It was also good to have Trey Martin back on the mound. He's getting his legs now and he threw strikes."
For the day, Prince went 2-for-3 with a double, two stolen bases, a walk and a runs scored while Segedin aided the Attack's cause with a pair of singles. Dyer led all players with three hits in four at-bats, including a three-run bomb in game two, and junior first baseman Sam Honeck was 2-for-5 with a pair of doubles.
"The cream is beginning to rise to the top," Jones said. "Josh Prince is an outstanding player but didn't play summer baseball and it's taken him a little longer to get his rhythm. We're beginning to see now the quality player we have in him. He made some great plays defensively and had a really good day offensively. He's an outstanding base-runner - both as a base-stealing threat and making good decisions. That was a really good thing to see today.
"Jared Dyer had a good day today - on base four times, three hits with a home run. We need Jared Dyer to have a big year for us and it was encouraging to see him do what he did today. It was good to see Aja Barto have another good day - he really swung the bat well - and Warren McFadden had some good, quality at-bats. Those are the guys we're going to count on to have the kinds of years that we need to be where we need to be."
The Machine lead the series 4-2, but the Attack have still have a chance to win as the Green Wave will play another three, three-inning scrimmages on Sunday. First pitch for the shortened triple-header is slated for 1 p.m.
