Baseball to Open 2015 Slate at Pepperdine on Friday
Feb 12, 2015 | Baseball
NEW ORLEANS - Tulane baseball will open their 2015 season on Friday with a three-game series against Pepperdine at Eddy D. Field Stadium in Malibu, California, under the guidance of first-year head coach David Pierce.
Friday's contest will begin at 4pm CT, while the games for Saturday and Sunday will start at 3pm CT. All three games can be heard on the home of Tulane baseball, 88.3 FM WRBH. Additionally, audio of the games will be available on Tulane's All-Access to paid subscribers.
The Green Wave will be led into action under Pierce and his staff - who came over from Sam Houston State in June - for the first time. Pierce owns an all-time record of 121-63 in three years as a head coach. The skipper will have his work cut out for him during his first weekend as skipper of the Green Wave program, as Pepperdine returns 18 letterwinners from a season ago in which they went 43-18 overall with an appearance in the Fort Worth Super Regional.
Tulane returns seven position starters from 2015, including the entire infield of senior Garrett Deschamp, sophomore Stephen Alemais, sophomore Jake Willsey and sophomore Hunter Hope, who helped the Green Wave lead the NCAA in turned double plays per game in 2014 with an average of 1.21.
Other position starters that return from the 2014 season are sophomore catcher Jake Rogers, junior outfielder Richard Carthon and sophomore outfielders Lex Kaplan and Grant Brown.
Sophomore righty Corey Merrill (0-5, 3.60 ERA in 2014) will get the start on opening night one season after starting 10 games for the Green Wave. Pepperdine will combat Merrill with right-handed pitcher A.J. Puckett (2-2, 3.58 ERA in 2014).
On Saturday, redshirt junior right-handed pitcher Alex Massey (3-4, 5.79 ERA in 2014) will take the mound for the Green Wave against righty Jackson McClelland (8-3, 3.48 ERA in 2014). Massey made six starts late in 2014 after missing the entire 2013 season with an injury.
Sunday will mark junior righty Tim Yandel's first career start. Yandel (1-1, 0.50) threw 18.0 innings in 2014, while holding hitters to a miniscule .185 batting average. Opposite Yandel will be southpaw Ryan Wilson, a true freshman.
Tulane leads the overall series 10-9, with the two teams last meeting in 2008. Opening the season at Pepperdine is not new to Tulane, as the Green Wave travelled to Malibu to kick-off the 2002 campaign. Tulane won the Sunday game, 12-8, but dropped the opening game of that season, 9-7, before dropping one of the wildest contests in Tulane history to Pepperdine by a score of 30-21. Pierce has never faced Pepperdine as a head coach.
Following the Pepperdine series, Tulane will return to Louisiana to play Southeastern Louisiana in Hammond on Wednesday, Feb. 18 before opening the home portion of their schedule against San Francisco on Friday, Feb. 20.
Tickets for the 2015 Tulane baseball season are now on sale. Interested parties can call 504-861-WAVE (9283) for more information on tickets, or they may visit the James W. Wilson, Jr. Center's first floor ticket office.
Fans can follow the Tulane baseball program on Twitter (@GreenWaveBSB) or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/GreenWaveBaseball.
