Three Baseball Alumni Head to MLB Postseason
Sep 29, 2011 | Baseball
Sept. 29, 2011
NEW ORLEANS - It was a wild finish to the Major League Baseball season on Wednesday evening. Once the dust settled from walk-off wins and extra inning affairs, the Tulane baseball team will send three former players to the MLB postseason. Two of those alums will help their respective squads from the mound, while Andrew Friedman can only sit and watch the club he has helped shaped battle for a World Series title.
Brandon Gomes and the Wild Card winning Tampa Bay Rays will open their American League Divisional Series against the Texas Rangers on Friday, September 30 in Arlington, Texas at 4:07 p.m. Central time. The Arizona Diamondbacks and TU product Micah Owings won the National League West and will open their series in Milwaukee against the Brewers on Saturday, October 1 with a 1:07 p.m. Central Time first pitch.
Gomes was acquired by Tampa Bay in December of 2010 in a trade with the San Diego Padres and made it to the big leagues in just his first season with the organization. The reliever spent time on the MLB roster and also saw action for the club's Triple A affiliate, the Durham Bulls. The right-hander appeared in 40 games out of the bullpen for Tampa Bay, ranking 13th among rookies in appearances. Overall, Gomes ended the season with a 2-1 record and 2.92 ERA in 37 innings of work.
Gomes was a big part of the team's late season charge, posting a 1-0 record and a 1.13 ERA over the final month of the year. He pitched scoreless innings in the final two regular season games against the Yankees to help the Rays clinch a playoff spot on the final day of the season.
A starting pitcher from 2003-2007 for the Green Wave, Gomes posted a 24-15 overall record - including two saves - and logged 351 innings on the mound. His 51 starts still sit third on the all-time charts and his 276 strikeouts are eighth in Tulane history.
For the first time since his rookie season, Owings will be making an appearance in the postseason. The five-year veteran posted an 8-0 record this season - mostly out of the bullpen - in 33 appearances for the Arizona Diamondback. He is in his second stint with the club that drafted him and has logged 63 innings with 44 strikeouts and just 23 walks. His 3.57 ERA ranks sixth on the squad.
Owings also made the postseason with the Diamondbacks during the 2007 slate and was the Game 4 start for Arizona in their NLCS matchup with the Colorado Rockies.
The two-way standout was on campus for just one season with Tulane and boasted a 12-4 record on the mound to go along with 18 home runs and a .359 batting average. Owings was a main cog on the 2005 squad that advanced to the College World Series and spent most of the season as the #1-ranked team in college baseball.
The Tampa Bay Rays have been one of the main media followings in Major League Baseball over the past four seasons and Friedman has been at the forefront of that turnaround. The Rays had never won more than 70 games in a season before Friedman arrived as the Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations in 2008, but since that time he has helped engineer one of the biggest turnarounds ever in MLB history.
Friedman has helped build a roster by assembling a young nucleus of players and adding key free agents. During his time as the VP for Baseball Operations, the 1999 graduate from Tulane's A.B. Freeman School of Business has seen his team win 90-plus games in three of the last four seasons, making the MLB postseason three times and advancing to the 2008 World Series.
Friedman was a member of the first Conference USA Tournament Championship squad in 1996, but a shoulder injury cut his playing career short.
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