Baseball Falls to San Diego, 7-4, in Game 2 of Series

Friday, March 10

Greer Field at Turchin Stadium

6:30 p.m.

Tulane University

3-10

San Diego

8-3

San Diego

Tulane

Photo by: Parker Waters

Baseball Falls to San Diego, 7-4, in Game 2 of Series

Mar 10, 2017 | Baseball

Box Score

Box Score

NEW ORLEANS – San Diego scored three runs in the seventh inning to take a 6-3 lead, and Tulane baseball dropped the second game of the weekend series, 7-4, Friday evening at Greer Field at Turchin Stadium.

Saturday's game has been moved up to a 1 p.m. start due to the high probability of rain Saturday evening. Tickets are available at the Tulane Athletics Ticket Office in the James W. Wilson Center or by calling 504-861-WAVE. Live video and live stats will be available at www.TulaneGreenWave.com, and the game will be broadcast on 88.3 FM WRBH and the TuneIn Radio app.

The game on Friday unfolded in a similar way as the series opener on Thursday. San Diego (8-3) took a 2-0 lead in the second inning, Tulane (3-10) answered with a pair of runs to tie in the third, and took a 3-2 lead in the fifth. The game moved past the sixth inning knotted, 3-3, but the Toreros then scored three runs in the seventh and a run in the eighth, while the Green Wave answered with a single run in the bottom of the seventh.

Grant Witherspoon and Hunter Hope each homered for the Green Wave. Witherspoon's two-run shot halfway up the netting behind the right field wall tied the game, 2-2 in the third inning. His homer followed a single by Paul Gozzo, the first career hit for the freshman catcher, who was playing in his second game. In the fifth inning, Hope gave the Wave a 3-2 lead with a mammoth opposite field home run over the netting and into the Rosen Parking Lot beyond the right field wall.

Tulane starter Corey Merrill (1-2) struck out a season-high seven batters. He allowed three runs and five hits through six innings, and pitched into the seventh inning, where he was charged with two runs. Jack Hogan and Christian Colletti finished the game and each allowed a run, while Colletti struck out two batters in 2.1 frames.

"I told the team, I'll take it, sending Merrill back out there in the seventh," Tulane head coach Travis Jewett said. "He was pretty much on 'E' and we were going to make a switch, but he looked at me with some pretty good conviction that he had a little bit more in the tank and he wanted to go back out there. With the situation our bullpen is in, I trusted his experience and we rolled the dice. Obviously, his stuff was a little bit down, and they dinked a couple of hits in there and next thing you know they've got an inning started. I give him an A for effort and wanting to give us our best chance, and I thought it was our best shot."

After falling behind 6-3, Hope drove another hit, this time deep into left center field for a double, scoring Jake Willsey who drew a two-out walk. Hope, who finished the game 2-for-3 with two RBI, was thrown out at third base to end the inning trying to stretch the hit into a triple. Witherspoon bunted for a single with two outs in the eighth, completing a 2-for-4, two RBI day. Kaplan tallied the only other hit with a single to left center in the first inning.

San Diego's first two runs came on a two-run home run by Kevin Collard. A bases-loaded hit batter drove in the tying run in the sixth, and then a bases loaded walk and a two-run single by Aiden Stinnett gave the Toreros the lead in the seventh. Jay Schuyler added an RBI single in the eighth to make the score, 7-4.

USD starter Nick Sprengel (4-0) allowed three earned runs in 6.0 innings and earned the win, while Troy Conyers pitched the final two innings and earned his fourth save.

Follow Green Wave Baseball on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Follow Tulane Athletics on Twitter and Facebook.

San Diego 7, Tulane 4 (Mar 10, 2017 at New Orleans, La.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
San Diego........... 020 001 310 - 7 11 0 (8-3)
Tulane.............. 002 010 100 - 4 6 2 (3-10)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Pitchers: San Diego - SPRENGEL, Nick; BARRY, Sean(7); CONYERS, Troy(8) and ADAMS, Riley.
Tulane - MERRILL, Corey; HOGAN, Jack(7); COLLETTI, Christian(7) and GOZZO, Paul;
ARTIGUES, Jonathon.
Win-SPRENGEL, Nick(4-0) Save-CONYERS, Troy(4) Loss-MERRILL, Corey(1-2) T-3:10 A-1926
HR USD - COLLARD, Kevin (1).
HR TLN - WITHERSPOON, Grant (2); HOPE, Hunter (3).
Weather: 74 Ptly Cloudy, Wind ESE @4mph
MERRILL faced 3 batters in the 7th.