Baseball Begins Fall Practice Tuesday At Turchin Stadium
Sep 25, 2007 | Baseball
Sept. 24, 2007
NEW ORLEANS, La. - The Tulane University baseball team will begin Fall Ball 2007 on Tuesday, Sept. 25, when the Green Wave take the field for the first time as a team at the new Turchin Stadium, head coach Rick Jones announced Monday.
The 2007 fall season marks the first time Tulane will play on campus since June 13, 2005, when the Green Wave defeated Rice, 9-6, in game three of the NCAA New Orleans Super Regional to punch their ticket to the College World Series. The squad spent Fall 2005 in Lubbock, Texas, following the affects of Hurricane Katrina on the New Orleans area, and spent last fall at Zephyr Field as construction on the new Turchin officially restarted.
"It's going to be great to be back on campus," Tulane head coach Rick Jones said. "It almost doesn't even feel like we're working. We no longer have to negotiate that extra time out of our day and sacrificing areas like strength training and study hall. It also gives us a chance to control our own environment. We can practice when we want to practice and when it works best for our schedule and our players' schedule, not someone else's.
"To be in this kind of facility - even though it's not complete yet - we know it's one of the greatest facilities in the country. To be quite honest, it's a combination of being really excited of being back in the routine we had prior to the storm, being in the new facility - which is just tremendous - and not being all the way out on Airline Highway. With all three of those things together, I really can't wait to get going."
The Green Wave will hold 26 intrasquad scrimmages throughout the fall, and the first is slated for Sunday, Sept. 30. Through new NCAA rules, Tulane will be able to hold practices through Nov. 11 and the final five days of Fall Ball will be the Green Wave's annul Fall World Series.
"It's the first time that we'll have this many days for fall practice," Jones said. "We have a window of 45 days to have 33 practices because of the new NCAA scheduling condenses our schedule and forces us into a situation where we have to play at least five games a week for six weeks in the spring.
"But the good news is that by playing all of that time in the fall, it gives you more of an opportunity to evaluate and get your system in. That's what fall practice is all about - it's an evaluation period and it's a time where everything you do within your program from a system-standpoint gets implemented. This will also allow us to be much more repetitive."
Tulane will use the fall to not only learn about its team for the 2008 season, but get accustomed to playing on a new surface as Turchin Stadium now features FieldTurf - the same surface used by several Major League Baseball and NFL franchises - instead of natural grass. The entire field, with the exception of the pitcher's mound and bullpen throwing area, will be FieldTurf, which all but eliminates the possibility of inclement weather making the field unplayable.
The Green Wave return 21 players from last year's roster, including five position starters and a pair of starting pitchers among 17 lettermen. Headlining the list of returners are 2007 first-team All-Conference USA selection Shooter Hunt (RHP), Cape Cod Baseball League All-Star outfielder Aja Barto and sophomore southpaw Aaron Loup, who was rated the No. 1 prospect in the Clark Griffith League last summer by Baseball America.
Other starters returning for the Wave are junior catcher Jared Dyer, junior infielder Seth Henry, junior right fielder Warren McFadden and junior left fielder Anthony Scelfo. Tulane also returns the talents of 2007 C-USA All-Freshman Team honoree Preston Claiborne (RHP).
Tulane welcomes a handful of new faces to the program for the 2008 season, including three Division I transfers, five Junior College graduates, and eight true freshmen.
Shortstop Josh Prince, southpaw Matt Petiton and right-handed pitcher Josh Zeid come to Tulane from Texas, North Carolina and Vanderbilt, respectively, while outfielders Drew Allain (Delgado CC) and Andrew Rodgers (Navarro JC), infielder Sam Honeck (Grayson CC), catcher Steve Moritz (Grayson CC) and closer Mason Griffin (Grayson CC) join the Green Wave program via the JuCo route.
Highlighting the list of true freshman on the roster are local products Robby Broach (RHP/INF) and Kirk Cunningham (OF) of Archbishop Rummel, Blake Bennett (INF) and Karl Mundt (C) of Mandeville High School, Nick Boullosa (OF) of Covington High and Matt Ryan (INF) of Jesuit. Infielder/Right-Handed Pitcher Rob Segedin (Old Tappan, N.J./Northern Valley Regional HS) and right-hander Nick Pepiton (Katy, Texas/Katy HS) round out the Green Wave's freshman class.
"We didn't lose a complete recruiting class (following Katrina in 2005), but we didn't feel like we were able to maximize our recruiting efforts that we would have been able to after the storm," Jones said. "We had at least 12 visits set up for the fall of 2005. You're talking about coming off another College World Series appearance and the new stadium being built, and we had probably our strongest potential class lined up to visit. Then, the storm hit and that depleted that.
"We are trying to get that class back as best as we can, so went more transfers and junior college than we have, but we also feel really good about the freshmen we've brought in. This time of year, everyone feels really good about their recruiting class. Through necessity, we did go more upperclassmen than we usually have to recapture that (lost) recruiting class."
The Tulane team will hold week-day practices from 2:15-5:30 p.m., weekend sessions will begin at 1 p.m. and Monday will be the team's off day. All instrasquad games will begin approximately one hour after the scheduled start of practice. While the field at Turchin Stadium is ready for play, the grandstand area is not yet complete. Until the facility passes a New Orleans Code inspection, no non-Tulane personnel will be allowed in the grandstand.
2007 TULANE FALL BALL PRACTICE SCHEDULE
Date Agenda TimeTuesday, Sept. 25 Practice 2:15 p.m.Wednesday, Sept. 26 Practice 2:15 p.m.Thursday, Sept. 27 Practice 2:15 p.m.Friday, Sept. 28 Practice 2:15 p.m.Saturday, Sept. 29 Practice 1:00 p.m.Sunday, Sept. 30 Practice/Intrasquad 1:00 p.m.Tuesday, Oct. 2 Practice 2:15 p.m.Wednesday, Oct. 3 Practice 2:15 p.m.Thursday, Oct. 4 Practice 2:15 p.m.Friday, Oct. 5 Practice 2:15 p.m.Saturday, Oct. 6 Practice/Intrasquad 1:00 p.m.Sunday, Oct. 7 Practice/Intrasquad 1:00 p.m.Tuesday, Oct. 9 Practice/Intrasquad 2:15 p.m.Wednesday, Oct. 10 Practice 2:15 p.m.Thursday, Oct. 11 Practice 2:15 p.m.Friday, Oct. 12 Pracitce/Intrasquad 2:15 p.m.Saturday, Oct. 13 Practice/Intrasquad 1:00 p.m.Sunday, Oct. 14 Practice/Intrasquad 1:00 p.m.Tuesday, Oct. 16 Practice/Intrasquad 2:15 p.m.Wednesday, Oct. 17 Practice 2:15 p.m.Thursday, Oct. 18 Practice 2:15 p.m.Friday, Oct. 19 Practice/Intrasquad 2:15 p.m.Saturday, Oct. 20 Practice/Intrasquad 1:00 p.m.Sunday, Oct. 21 Practice/Intrasquad 1:00 p.m.Tuesday, Oct. 23 Practice/Intrasquad 2:15 p.m.Wednesday, Oct. 24 Practice/Intrasquad 2:15 p.m.Thursday, Oct. 25 Practice 2:15 p.m.Friday, Oct. 26 Practice/Intrasquad 2:15 p.m.Saturday, Oct. 27 Practice/Intrasquad 1:00 p.m.Sunday, Oct. 28 Practice/Intrasquad 1:00 p.m.Tuesday, Oct. 30 Practice/Intrasquad 2:15 p.m.Wednesday, Oct. 31 Practice/Intrasquad 2:15 p.m.Thursday, Nov. 1 Practice 2:15 p.m.Friday, Nov. 2 Practice/Intrasquad 2:15 p.m.Saturday, Nov. 3 Practice/Intrasquad 1:00 p.m.Sunday, Nov. 4 Practice/Intrasquad 1:00 p.m.Tuesday, Nov. 6 Practice 2:15 p.m.Wednesday, Nov. 7 Fall World Series Game 1 2:15 p.m.Thursday, Nov. 8 Fall World Series Game 2 2:15 p.m.Friday, Nov. 9 Fall World Series Game 3 2:15 p.m.Saturday, Nov. 10 Fall World Series Game 4 1:00 p.m.Sunday, Nov. 11 Fall World Series Game 5 1:00 p.m.All dates and times subject to change
