Tulane Baseball Doubles Up On Midweek Contests
Apr 20, 2009 | Baseball
April 20, 2009
Complete Pregame Notes in PDF Format 
NEW ORLEANS- After an exciting weekend of Green Wave baseball that found the Tulane club taking two of three games from No. 17 East Carolina in Conference USA play, the Green Wave will play cross-town rival University of New Orleans twice before a weekend series against C-USA foe Memphis. The Green Wave will travel to Maestri Field for Tuesday's contest, while Tulane plays host to the Privateers on Wednesday. Tuesday's road game will begin at 6:30PM while Wednesday's first pitch is slated for 6PM.
The Green Wave (22-17, 5-7 C-USA) has been playing solid all-around baseball over the past two weeks, winning their last five of six matchups, including four C-USA contests. Offensively, the team is batting .297 on the strength of 71 doubles, 12 triples and 45 home runs. Tulane posted 27 hits in the weekend series versus the Pirates including seven doubles, a triple and two long balls over the weekend. Catcher Jeremy Schaffer enjoyed the home runs for the Wave, with both coming at opportune times in their respective games. During Friday's weekend opener, the freshman from Bellaire, Texas hit a two-run shot that gave Tulane their first lead of the night and ultimately the victory. In Sunday's game, Schaffer took the first pitch he saw from starter Brad Mincey over the right field wall, giving Tulane the 3-1 lead. The Wave went on to win Sunday's contest by a score of 4-3.
Along with Schaffer, Tulane's shortstop Josh Prince has stayed consistent at the plate, posting a .365 batting average. Prince averaged .357 over the weekend, while also tallying two doubles in the process of extending his hitting streak to eight games. Also enjoying a career-high streak is Wave third baseman, Matt Ryan who has hit safely in six games. Ryan batted .400 over the weekend while knocking in the first Tulane run on Friday night as part of a three-run fifth inning. Senior Sam Honeck (.370, 13 home runs) picked up three more RBI against the Pirates, putting his season total at 56, good enough to lead Conference USA and place him in the top five in the nation.
From the mound, the Green Wave staff has posted a 4.28 team ERA. Tulane received solid outings from Conrad Flynn in Sunday's game, with the sophomore throwing 7.1 innings while striking out a career-high eight batters to earn the win. This was following a fine relief effort from senior Jonathan Garrett in Friday night's opener. The senior right-hander inherited a one out, runners-at-the-corners situation that found the Green Wave down 4-0. Garrett entered the contest, struck out the first batter he saw for the second out of the inning while inducing a ground ball out of the next to work out of the jam. Tulane's offense generated three runs behind Garrett in the bottom of that frame, and went on to post four more, earning Garrett the win in his 4.2 innings of service to improve his record to 3-1. Garrett only relinquished two hits, retiring 12 of the 16 batters he faced, while striking out four Pirate batsmen.
Tulane will send southpaw Matt Petiton (4-2) to the hill in Tuesday's contest at UNO. The Garden City, N.Y.-native sports a 4.80 ERA in 45.0 innings of service while striking out 22. Petiton will face off against right-hander Matt Brown, a senior from Metairie, La. Brown's 10.80 ERA has been earned over 20.0 innings pitched, in which he gave up 37 hits and 24 earned runs. Wednesday's starters for both teams have yet to be determined.
Like the Wave, UNO is also coming off a 2-1 weekend, after taking Friday and Sunday's games from host Florida International. The Privateers (15-23) are paced by Jay Morris, who is hitting .379, and Jerad Comarda (.350, 7 HRs, 27 RBIs). Junior infielder Nick Schwaner is hitting .338 with a team-best 10 home runs and 37 RBIs.
The Tuesday night meeting will be the 121st between the two squads, with the most recent being an 8-9 loss to the Privateers at Greer Field at Turchin Stadium. The Green Wave still enjoys a 68-52 record against UNO and will look to improve on that mark as they open the 2009 First NBC Bank Cup series Tuesday at 6:30PM at Maestri Field.
