Baseball Season Comes to an End in American Athletic Conference Tournament

Thursday, May 25

Clearwater, Fla.

10:00 a.m.

Tulane University

27-31

UCF

39-19

UCF

Tulane

Photo by: Ben Solomon

Baseball Season Comes to an End in American Athletic Conference Tournament

May 25, 2017 | Baseball

Box Score

Box Score

CLEARWATER, Fla. – Senior Hunter Williams and sophomore Grant Witherspoon each homered, but it was not enough, as Tulane baseball fell to top-seeded UCF, 8-3, in the American Athletic Conference Championship Thursday afternoon at Spectrum Field.

Williams, the American Athletic Conference Co-Player of the Year, hit a solo home run in the sixth inning that provided the first hit and first run for the Green Wave. Witherspoon then hit a solo homer in the eighth, after hitting an RBI double in the sixth. The two home runs, raising Tulane's total to 70 for the season, made the score 8-3. The Wave ended the season with a 27-31 mark.

The Green Wave finished with six hits in the ballgame, including two by Witherspoon and two by senior Jake Willsey. Williams raised his home run total to 11 for the season and 24 for his career. The 70 team home runs are the most for Tulane since the 2005 squad hit 84.

Senior Christian Colletti pitched a season-high 4.0 innings in relief of redshirt junior starter J.P. France. Colletti tallied six strikeouts, and allowed no runs on two hits and two walks.

"You have to give their pitcher all the credit in the world – he's really good, and there is a reason why he doesn't have any losses," Tulane head coach Travis Jewett said. "We had a lot of newness this season – new coaches to the players, and older players that were new to us. These players have been around and had a lot of at bats in games. We wanted to give them a lot of reign to play this game like they know how. In the end, I think we were probably just short a few pitchers in the bullpen. I was proud of the guys with the way they battled, and I think this group came together."

After Williams' opposite field shot got the offense started, redshirt junior Grant Brown drew a two-out walk, and scored on Witherspoon's laser double to right center. Willsey led off the seventh with a single to left, senior Jeremy Montalbano hit a pinch-hit infield single and senior Lex Kaplan walked to load the bases, but a double play ended the inning.

Witherspoon hit his fifth home run of the season with two outs in the eighth – a long home run that cleared the outfield wall and two fences behind it in right field. Willsey started the bottom of the ninth beating out a grounder in the hole at third for his second hit of the day.

Tulane had baserunners early in the game. Kaplan started the first with a walk, and Witherspoon drew a walk in the fourth after Brown was hit by a pitch, but the Wave was unable to begin a rally.

The Knights (39-19) scored four runs in the third and four runs in the sixth inning, while starter and American Co-Pitcher of the Year Robby Howell (10-0) did not allow a hit until the sixth when Williams homered.

UCF scored four runs in the third on an RBI single by Logan Heiser, a two-run home run by Eli Putnam and a solo homer by Kyle Marsh. In the sixth, a pair of errors allowed two runs to score, and Marsh added a two-run single to make the score 8-0.

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UCF 8, Tulane 3 (May 25, 2017 at Clearwater, Fla.)
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UCF................. 004 004 000 - 8 10 0 (39-19)
Tulane.............. 000 002 010 - 3 6 2 (27-31)
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Pitchers: UCF - HOWELL, Robby; SCHEFTZ, Jordan(9) and HEISER, Logan. Tulane - FRANCE, J.P.;
COLLETTI, Christian(6) and GOZZO, Paul; ARTIGUES, Jonathon.
Win-HOWELL, Robby(10-0) Loss-FRANCE, J.P.(5-5) T-2:43 A-0
HR UCF - PUTNAM, Eli (8); MARSH, Kyle (6).
HR TLN - WILLIAMS, Hunter (11); WITHERSPOON, Grant (5).
FRANCE faced 4 batters in the 6th.