Next Up: Baseball Take Momentum Into Utah Series
Apr 20, 2011 | Baseball
April 20, 2011
4/21/2011 - 4/23/2011
Utah Utes at Tulane Green Wave
First Pitch: 6:30 p.m. (Thur.), 6:30 (Fri.), 11:00 a.m. (Sat.)
Stadium: Greer Field at Turchin Stadium
Series: Tulane Leads Series 3-0
Looking at the Green Wave
The Green Wave snapped a three game, midweek losing streak with their 13-8 win over Southeastern Louisiana on Tuesday evening and will look to continue that momentum in their series versus Utah, which starts on a non-traditional Thursday evening at Greer Field at Turchin Stadium. This will be just the second meeting between Tulane and Utah, with the first coming during the 2004 season. That season the Olive and Blue won three games by a combined score of 19-0 at Turchin Stadium (2/27-2/29).
The offense found its stride against the Lions on Tuesday night, tying their team-high season totals in RBI's (13), hits (17) and doubles (6). Bowen Woodson paced all players with three RBI's in the game, while 11 Tulane players collected hits, led by Blake Crohan with three. Crohan and fellow sophomore Brennan Middleton are a big reasons that the Tulane offense has been moving in the right direction of late, with the pair hitting .318 and .462, respectively. Middleton leads the team over the last five contests with a .563 on-base percentage, while Crohan, Frank Florio, Matt Ryan and Jeremy Schaffer each have four RBI's in their last five games.
Tulane will send the same starting rotation to the mound for the third straight weekend, marking the first time this year that the rotation has been the same for three straight weekends. Conrad Flynn will make his 38th consecutive series opening start versus the Utes and is coming off of seven innings of one-run baseball against Rice last weekend. Flynn fanned seven, walked two and left after the finishing the seventh in a 1-1 ballgame. Drew Zizinia fanned four in a no decision on Saturday in Houston, while Alex Byo stuck out a career high eight batters before leaving a 1-1 game after five innings due to a pitch count.
Tulane head coach Rick Jones and Utah head coach Bill Kinneberg are the last two managers of the USA Collegiate National Team. Jones held the title during the summer of 2009, while Kinneberg was the manager last season for the Red, White and Blue. Another common theme for the two teams are quarterbacks that play baseball. Utah's Tyler Shreve and Tulane's D.J. Ponder both recently completed their respective spring football campaigns.
Looking at the Utes
Utah lost a 7-6 contest against BYU on Tuesday evening, but swept New Mexico last weekend to enter the three-game series with a 16-14 overall record. Last weekend, the Utes outscored the Lobos 31-15, winning games by totals of 7-1, 15-11 and 9-3.
C.J. Cron is the reigning Mountain West Conference Player of the Week after hitting .444 against Utah Valley and New Mexico. Cron enters the week ranked second nationally in batting average (.470), while ranking among the top-ten nationally in slugging percentage (.795) and on-base percentage (.532), while ranking 12th in RBI's per game (1.34). Michael Beltran is batting .524 in his last four games, going 3-for-6 to lead Utah against BYU, to move his season average to .333. Beltran enters the weekend on an eight-game hitting streak, while James Brooks has the longest hitting streak on the team at nine games.
Tyler Wagner has been a big option out of the bullpen this season for the Utes, as the sophomore is nearing the Utah single-season record for saves. Wagner enters the weekend with a 2-1 record and eight saves in 21.1 innings of work to go along with his 1.69 ERA in 14 appearances.
Inside the Series
This will be just the fourth overall meeting between the two teams, with the Utes traveling to New Orleans during the 2004 season for a three-game set. In the final weekend of February, the Olive and Blue swept the series without allowing a run to improve their season mark to 8-1. Tulane won games by scores of 3-0, 7-0 and 9-0 from Feb. 27-29.
Tulane won two of three games from UNLV last season and are 25-15 overall versus the current alignment of the Mountain West Conference. The Olive and Blue have played Air Force (1-1), BYU (2-3), New Mexico (1-1), San Diego State (3-2), TCU (7-6), UNLV (8-2) and Utah (3-0). Colorado State and Wyoming are the only two MWC teams that the Green Wave has not played.
