France Leads Baseball to 6-0 Shutout of West Virginia

Saturday, March 4

Greer Field at Turchin Stadium

4:00 p.m.

Tulane University

3-7

West Virginia

6-4

West Virginia

Tulane

France Leads Baseball to 6-0 Shutout of West Virginia

Mar 4, 2017 | Baseball

Box Score

Box Score

NEW ORLEANS – J.P. France pitched seven shutout innings, and Grant Witherspoon went 2-for-3 with three runs to lead Tulane to a 6-0 series-clinching victory over West Virginia Saturday at Greer Field at Turchin Stadium.

France (1-1) struck out four and allowed four hits and two walks, never allowing a runner past second base. Freshman Jack Hogan relieved France to start the eighth inning and finished off the shutout, allowing only a single in the ninth.

The Green Wave (3-7) jumped out to a 3-0 lead with a run in the first inning and two in the second, then added single runs in the fourth, sixth and eighth innings. Tulane has claimed its first weekend series win of the season. The series finale against the Mountaineers (6-4) is 1 p.m. Sunday. Tickets are available at the Tulane Athletics Ticket Office in the James W. Wilson Center. Live video and live stats will be available at www.TulaneGreenWave.com, and the game will be broadcast on 88.3 FM WRBH.

"I'm just proud of the players. They came out today right from the start, their preparation was good, and their believability was good," Tulane head coach Travis Jewett said. "Then, France rebounded from his tough outing last weekend in California and just took control from the get-go. He was ahead early, his stuff was quality, and he just kept them at bay. It all starts right there, and we played solid defense."

Witherspoon reached base in four of his five plate appearances, increasing his six-game production to 14 hits in 22 at bats with five walks and seven runs scored. Jarret DeHart drove in two runs on sacrifice flies, and Grant Brown, Jake Willsey and Hunter Hope each drove in runs. The Wave drew 11 walks including four in the first inning.

The Green Wave scored its runs in a variety of ways, including three sacrifice flies. It struck first without putting a ball in play in the initial inning. Four walks led to the first run of the game, while three interspersed strikeouts ended the inning.

Tulane extended the lead to 3-0 with two runs in the second on an RBI double off the wall in left center by Hunter Hope and an RBI base hit by Grant Witherspoon. Sal Gozzo led off the inning with a walk, and went to second when the catcher's pickoff attempt sailed into right field

Witherspoon singled to lead off the fourth, and moved around to score on Jarret DeHart's sacrifice fly to left. DeHart plated another run in the sixth with a sacrifice fly, scoring Lex Kaplan, who reached on an error at second and went from first to third on Hunter Williams' single past third base into left field.

In the eighth, Tulane loaded the bases with three walks, including an intentional base on balls, and Grant Brown drove home Witherspoon with a sacrifice fly to right field, making the score 6-0.

"Anytime you can walk 11 times – we haven't done that a lot this year – that tells me we're in control of pace, timing, pitch recognition and the strike zone," Jewett said. "They allowed us some free runners, but we certainly played good offense and took advantage of some of those too."

France retired the first eight batters he faced, and sat down West Virginia batters in order in three innings. In the sixth, he faced runners at second and third with one out after a single and a walk, but induced a 6-4-3 double play to end the inning. In the seventh, he curbed a potential rally started by leadoff walk and a base hit with a pair of pop ups and a strikeout.

West Virginia starter Carter Camp allowed three runs in just more than an inning, and took the loss to fall to 0-1.

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Tulane 6, West Virginia 0 (Mar 04, 2017 at New Orleans, La.)
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West Virginia....... 000 000 000 - 0 5 3 (6-4)
Tulane.............. 120 101 01X - 6 6 0 (3-7)
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Pitchers: West Virginia - Camp, Carter; Potock, Jacob(2); Ennis, Shane(6); Vesuivo, Frank(8);
Troutt, Riley(8) and Gonzalez, Ivan. Tulane - FRANCE, J.P.; HOGAN, Jack(8) and
MONTALBANO, Jeremy.
Win-FRANCE, J.P.(1-1) Loss-Camp, Carter(0-1) T-2:54 A-2210
Weather: 64 Cloudy, Wind ESE @ 23 mph
Camp, C. faced 2 batters in the 2nd.