Baseball Earns Sweep of HBU With 3-1 win Sunday

Sunday, March 24

New Orleans

1:00 PM

Tulane University

17-7

Houston Baptist

5-18

Houston Baptist

Tulane

Baseball Earns Sweep of HBU With 3-1 win Sunday

Mar 24, 2019 | Baseball

Box Score

NEW ORLEANS, La. – The Tulane Green Wave baseball team battled back from an early 1-0 deficit and got strong pitching down the stretch by the entire staff in a 3-1 win over the HBU Huskies Sunday afternoon to clinch the weekend sweep at Greer Field at Turchin Stadium.

For a team that's built its reputation so far by churning out runs in droves, the Green Wave (17-7) went pitch-for-pitch against a solid HBU (5-18) team throughout the weekend and didn't flinch, while Tulane was able to get the timely hit at just the right moment getting runs in the second, third and sixth frames to give the staff just enough room to work with in clinching the sweep.

"Our ability to match them on the mound was the key," head coach Travis Jewett said. "We threw strikes and didn't walk many all weekend. In the end, that's the recipe that you're looking for."

Tulane starting pitcher Chase Solesky (2-1) earned the win due in part to another strong day on the mound in striking out nine and allowing just one run on three hits in 5.1 innings. The following three pitchers in Justin Campbell, Robert Price and Brendan Cellucci (1) combined to close out the game allowing just one hit with a pair of strikeouts in relief to secure the win.

Jonathon Artigues led Tulane at the plate going 2-for-4 with a double and a stolen base in the win for the Green Wave. David Bedgood tied the game in the second on his fifth home run of the year, while Trevor Jensen gave Tulane a bit of insurance in the sixth with an RBI double to make it a two-score game.

HBU starter Kyle Gruller (0-3) scattered four hits, striking out five and walking five in five innings of work, but it was the second of the two runs he gave up in the game came on one of his two wild pitches in the contest that allowed the Green Wave to break the 1-1 tie in the bottom of the third.

Daniel Endsley pitched the final three innings in relief, giving up Jensen's double as one of the two hits allowed and only run during his time on the mound, striking out four and walking one on 49 pitches.

Solesky had retired 11 straight batters, and 13 of 14 from the second inning through the fifth, but in the sixth a leadoff walk allowed an HBU runner to reach, as an error allowed the runner to move to second. The sophomore would get his ninth and final strikeout of the day after that, with Campbell coming on in his place.

The lefty would do the job in quick work, getting the next Husky batter to ground out to him to keep the runner at second as Price came on after that. A wild pitch on ball four put runners at the corners for HBU, but in the next at-bat a grounder to Kody Hoese at third kept the game at 2-1 at that point.

Price earned his only strikeout in the seventh, now with the lead at 3-1 in favor of the Green Wave. A walk put a runner on, but a grounder to Jensen at first put two outs on the board with a runner now at second and Cellucci coming on to face the final batter of the inning and getting a fly out to Grant Mathews in left to close the frame.

The side went down in order in the next inning, as HBU got a single with two outs in the ninth on a pinch hit at-bat. The runner moved to second on a balk, but it was no matter as a fly out to Hudson Haskin in right sealed the win and Cellucci's first career save.

Tulane will take it's five-game winning streak on the road next week, beginning with at Tuesday contest against the Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin Cajuns.

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