Tulane University
Alcorn State
Baseball Blanks Alcorn State 12-0
Mar 16, 2011 | Baseball
March 16, 2011
Box Score (PDF) | Season Statistics (PDF)
NEW ORLEANS - It had been exactly one year to the day that the #22 Tulane baseball team had shutout an opponent on the diamond and on Wednesday evening three pitchers combined to lead the Green Wave to a 12-0 blanking of Alcorn State on the turf inside Greer Field at Turchin Stadium. Garrett Cannizaro, Jeremy Schaffer and Nick Schneeberger all drove in three RBI's and D.J. Ponder threw five innings in his first career start.
"It was good to see D.J. pitch well tonight," said Tulane head coach Rick Jones. "We are really appreciative of football because they let him off this morning (from workouts). Scoring as many times as we did early, we got some good quality at-bats with 13 hits, we made no errors, it was a big win. After the big weekend and last night and all the wins over ranked teams, this is a game that you could easily ease into and get yourself behind the eight-ball. I thought we did the exact opposite."
Tulane (13-4) opened the scoring with two runs in each of the first three innings to jump out to a 6-0 lead. Nick Schneeberger plated the first runs of the game with a two-RBI single up the middle in the first, as Tulane sent eight hitters to the plate in the inning.
In the second, Blake Crohan drew a two-out walk and stole second base before Jeremy Schaffer belted his 11th double of the season off the wall in left field to bring Crohan around to score. Garrett Cannizaro followed with a single to his own to left field, scoring Schaffer, but was thrown out trying to stretch it into a double and the score stood at 4-0 in favor of the Green Wave.
Bowen Woodson drew a bases loaded walk against Alcorn State (4-11) starting pitcher Brent Blaum to push the fifth run of the game across and Quinn Pippin followed with a sacrifice fly to left field to make it 6-0 after three innings.
Schaffer tripled off the wall in center field to start the fifth and later scored on a Nick Schneeberger groundout to the shortstop.
Throughout all of the offense, D.J. Ponder (2-0) was making his first start a good one for the Olive and Blue, allowing only three base runners in five innings of work. The junior allowed a first inning double and a fourth inning single, walked one batter and struck out a pair to earn his second victory.
A five-run fifth inning capped a solid night for the offense, as Tulane sent nine hitters to the plate and benefitted from a pair of Braves errors. After retiring the first two hitters, ASU reliever Cole Vicars watched Pippin reach on a throwing error, before a single and walk loaded the bases. Schaffer delivered the first two RBI's of the inning with a single and Cannizaro followed with a triple to right center field to knock in two more runs. An error on a Schneeberger ground ball allowed Cannizaro to score and the lead was 12-0.
"It felt good," junior D.J. Ponder said. "What really helped was the bats came alive almost instantly. And as a pitcher, when you see that, you just go out there and try to pound the zone. The guys played great defensively behind me tonight, so it helped a lot."
Gunner Wright and Greg Miller combined to throw the final four innings scoreless and hold the first shutout of the season for the Green Wave pitching staff. The last shutout for Tulane came last season on March 16, when Wright combined with Nick Pepitone to blank Kansas, 1-0.
In this game, the Green Wave got three RBI's from Cannizaro, Schaffer and Schneeberger on the night, while Woodson accounted for the other Tulane RBI. Schaffer lead all players with four hits in the game - missing the cycle by just a home run - and four runs scored. Crohan collected a base hits, walked twice and was hit by a pitch in the contest, while scoring three times. Seven of the nine Tulane starters collected hits and all nine reached base.
Tulane will begin a weekend series with New Orleans on Friday, March 18, with the first pitch scheduled for 6:30. The Green Wave and Privateers will also play a 2:00 contest on Saturday and a 1:00 game on Sunday.
--TulaneGreenWave.com--
