Tulane University
Wichita State
Baseball Shutout in Series Finale at Wichita State
Mar 11, 2012 | Baseball
March 11, 2012
Box Score (PDF) | Season Statistics
WICHITA, Kan. - The Tulane baseball season had their chances on Sunday afternoon against Wichita State inside Eck Stadium, but the Green Wave couldn't push a runner across the plate in their 3-0 loss. Tulane got a solid five-inning start out of freshman Alex Massey, but stranded nine base runners and hit into two double plays to drop the rubber game of the three game series with the Shockers.
"We just couldn't get the big hit today and wasted a really good performance from Alex Massey," said Tulane head coach Rick Jones. "I thought that Andrew Garner and Alex Facundus also pitched well. If you don't score you don't win...This week was a tough week. We got pitched too and just weren't able to have good at bats in key situations. We did hit some balls hard, but right at people. We got two really good pitching performances, (Saturday) and today, both in starting and relief roles. For the most part, our defense was good, but we just weren't offensive enough and couldn't score many runs."
The Shockers took an early lead in the bottom of the first inning when Erik Harbutz singled with one out, moved to third on a Johnny Coy double and scored on a sacrifice fly by Casey Gillaspie.
Over the first five innings, Tulane (11-5) put seven runners on base against Wichita State (10-7) starting pitcher Josh Smith, but Smith was able to strand all seven of those base runners. The Olive and Blue left two runners on base in the second, fourth and fifth innings.
Wichita State added a run against Massey with another sacrifice fly in the sixth inning when Coy walked, moved to third on a double by Gillaspie to end the freshman pitchers outing. Andrew Garner came on with two on and one out and got a pop out before walking a batter to load the bases. Ryan Hege then grabbed an RBI with a sacrifice fly to center field to make it 2-0 in favor of the Shockers.
A leadoff walk in the sixth and a one-out double in the seventh were both stranded by WSU reliever Foster Vielock and Case Elam threw two scoreless innings to post his fourth save of the season.
The Shockers added the third run of the game on a double from Kevin Hall in the eighth and the Green Wave went in order in the ninth to lose their first weekend series of the season.
Six different players collected hits for the Green Wave, including the Boudreaux double in the seventh inning. Blake Crohan extended his hitting streak to three games, while Sean Potkay and Jeremy Schaffer extended their respective reached base streaks to 11 and 16 games.
Massey suffered his first last of the season with five innings of two-run work. He tied his career-high with six striekouts, walked two and surrendered only four hits. Garner allowed one run in two and one-thirds innings, striking out three, and Alex Facundus struck out one in two-thirds of an inning.
"I hope that this can give us an edge in certain situations when we are on the road later in the year," said Jones. "It was a tough weekend for us, losing two out of three."
Tulane will return to the turf inside Greer Field at Turchin Stadium for a 1:00 p.m. contest against Louisiana-Monroe on Tuesday, March 13.
GAME NOTES
- Tulane leads all-time series 4-3 with Wichita State after losing the series 2-1.
- It was the first series loss of the season for the Green Wave.
- Jeremy Schaffer extended his reached base streak to 16 games on Sunday.
- Sean Potkay has reached base in 11 consecutive games with a hit on Sunday.
- Tulane tied in hits for the fifth time this season with their opponents. The Green Wave has tied or outhit their opponents in 15 of 16 games this season.
