Baseball Opens Conference Play with 6-4 win over No. 25 USF

Friday, March 31

Greer Field at Turchin Stadium

6:30 p.m.

Tulane University

11-15, 0

USF

23-4, 0

USF

Tulane

Photo by: Parker Waters

Baseball Opens Conference Play with 6-4 win over No. 25 USF

Mar 31, 2017 | Baseball

Box Score

Box Score

NEW ORLEANS – Corey Merrill was solid for 7.0 innings, and Tulane scored five runs in the seventh inning to defeat No. 25 USF, 6-4, to open American Athletic Conference play Friday evening at Greer Field at Turchin Stadium.

Six different players drove in a run for the Green Wave (11-15, 1-0 American), which has now won eight of its last 11 games. Tulane totaled nine hits, six of which came in the seventh inning. The Bulls (23-4, 0-1 American) scored three runs in the fourth inning, and added one in the ninth.

Merrill (3-2) rebounded from the three-run fourth to hold USF scoreless for the next three frames, as the Green Wave mounted its offensive comeback. He finished with six strikeouts, and allowed three runs on eight hits. Keagan Gillies tossed a scoreless eighth inning, and Christian Colletti pitched the ninth, picking up his third save of the season. Joe Cavallaro (2-1) took the loss for USF.

"Corey gave us a quality start. He matched their guy, and was able to keep a really good offense at bay," Tulane head coach Travis Jewett said. "That's a quality club and they're well-coached. We were able to eventually get to their starter, who was in control early. But our players found a way to figure him out a little bit. We had some big two-strike hits, we used the other side of the field, made contact when we needed to, and some good things happened."

USF took a 3-0 lead in the fourth inning, when it strung consecutive doubles by Luke Borders, Joe Genord and Duke Stunkel, and got an RBI single by David Villar. It seemed to create a big hill to climb for the Tulane offense, which had two hits on starter Phoenix Sanders to that point.

The Green Wave, however, plated a run in the sixth to cut the deficit to 3-1. Lex Kaplan walked, and then scored on Hunter Williams' double to right center field. Until that double, the Wave had been hitless since the third inning.

Sal Gozzo started the seventh with a walk, then Tulane batters followed with four consecutive one-out hits that plated three runs. Grant Brown's pinch-hit double that scored Gozzo chased Sanders from the game.

Jake Willsey then singled to the hole at short, Paul Gozzo chopped a single over the pitcher's head, and Witherspoon grounded a base hit into the hole between first and second to give Tulane the 4-3 lead. Kaplan plated Gozzo on an RBI fielder's choice, then scored on Jarret DeHart's base hit into left field, making the score 6-3.

The Bulls led off the ninth with two singles, one of which was erased by a 5-4-3 double play – the third double play of the night for Tulane's defense. An RBI single by Stunkel made the score, 6-4, but Willsey dove to stop a ground ball and flipped it to Williams at first to end the game.

Tulane and USF continue the series Saturday, with Game 2 at 4 p.m. Tickets are available at the Tulane Athletics Ticket Office in person, or by calling 504-861-WAVE. The game will be broadcast on 88.3 FM WRBH and the TuneIn Radio app, and live video and live stats can be found on www.TulaneGreenWave.com.

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Tulane 6, USF 4 (Mar 31, 2017 at New Orleans, La.)
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USF................. 000 300 001 - 4 14 0 (23-4, 0-1)
Tulane.............. 000 001 50X - 6 9 0 (11-15, 1-0)
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Pitchers: USF - SANDERS, Phoenix; CAVALLARO, Joe(7); SAVARESE, Mark(7) and DIETRICH, Tyler.
Tulane - MERRILL, Corey; GILLIES, Keagan(8); COLLETTI, Christian(9) and GOZZO, Paul.
Win-MERRILL, Corey(3-2) Save-COLLETTI, Christian(3) Loss-CAVALLARO, Joe(2-1) T-2:34 A-1767
Weather: 80 Sunny, Wind SSE @ 4 mph