Dramatic Ninth Inning Home Run Leads Baseball to Doubleheader Sweep Over Rice

Saturday, April 5

New Orleans

4:30 p.m.

Tulane University

20-12, 4-4

Rice

7-26, 1-7

Rice

Tulane Green Wave

Dramatic Ninth Inning Home Run Leads Baseball to Doubleheader Sweep Over Rice

Apr 6, 2025 | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

NEW ORLEANS – The Tulane baseball team (21-12, 5-4 AAC) swept both games of the team's doubleheader over Rice (7-27, 1-8 AAC) by scores of 10-3 and 6-5 on Saturday, April 5, on Green Field at Turchin Stadium. The second game and the sweep was secured on a dramatic walk-off two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth inning by Matthias Haas.

Connor Rasmussen led the offensive attack on the day with five hits. James Agabedis III totaled four hits and three RBIs. Kaikea Harrison had three hits including a double. Haas had three hits, two runs scored, a home run and three RBIs. Theo Bryant IV picked up three hits, two runs, a home run and a pair of RBIs. Brock Slaton had a pair of RBIs. Tanner Chun hit his team-leading fifth home run.

Game One
Trey Cehajic (4-1) started for Tulane and earned the victory with five innings worked, three runs allowed with four strikeouts. Carter Benbrook worked the final four scoreless innings with seven strikeouts for the first save of his career.

Rasmussen had three hits in the contest. Agabedis totaled four hits plus three RBIs. Bryant tallied three hits, two RBIs and two runs scored. Slaton had a pair of hits as did Harrison.

After Rice took an early 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning on an Aric Anderson home run, Tulane wrestled the lead back for good with three runs in the bottom of frame on Slaton's two-run double and a fielding error from the Rice center fielder as he attempted to throw the ball back in after a base hit.

Tulane added a run to the lead, 4-1, in the third inning on Bryant's RBI single.

Rice answered with two runs, 4-3, in the top of the fifth inning on a Blaine Brown RBI double and a Jacob Devenny RBI single.

The Green Wave extended the lead with two runs in the bottom of the sixth, 6-3, on Bryant's home run and Schulz's RBI single.

The team added another run in the seventh, 7-3, on Agabedis' bunt single.

Tulane finished the scoring off with three runs in the eighth inning on a Michael Lombardi RBI double and an Agabedis two-run RBI double.

Game Two
Will Clements started for the Green Wave in the second game and struck out 10 while allowing just two hits and one run in 4.1 innings. Blaise Wilcenski surrendered three runs on four hits in his inning. Julius Ejike-Charles threw 1.2 scoreless innings with a strikeout. Jacob Moore was tagged with a run and struck out three in his inning. Michael Lombardi (2-0) struck out three in throwing the ninth inning. He also earned the win after Tulane's walk-off home run in the bottom of the inning.

Matthias Haas had two hits, two runs scored and three RBIs in the game. Connor Rasmussen picked up a pair of hits and an RBI. Tanner Chun had a home run. Jason Wachs and Kaikea Harrison both had hits and RBIs.

Tulane scored first with a run in the opening inning on a throwing error by the Rice shortstop on a single from Rasmussen.

After Rice tied in the game in the bottom of the fifth inning on an RBI double from Anderson, Tulane took the lead back, 3-1, on the RBI ground out from Haas and the Rasmussen RBI single.

Rice wrestled the lead back again in the sixth inning, 4-3, with three runs on the two-run home run from Michael Zito and the Devenny RBI single.

Tulane tied the game back up, 4-4, in the eighth inning on Chun's two-out home run.

Rice again took the lead back, 5-4, in the top of the ninth on Hiram Bocachica's RBI single.

The bottom of the ninth was a series of little plays that led to the big blast from Haas. Wachs started the inning with a single. He moved to second on a sacrifice bunt from Harrison and took third on a ground out from Schulz before Haas walked off the game with his two-run home run to right field.

Next, Tulane gets out of conference play and host Southeastern Louisiana on Tuesday, April 8, at 6:30 p.m.

Notables
James Agabedis III's four hits in the first game matched his career high…Will Clements' 10 strikeouts in the second game were a career-high and a season-high for any Tulane pitcher…The save earned by Carter Benbrook in the first game was the first of his Tulane career…Michael Lombardi picked up a win and a save in the series…The conference sweep over Rice was a first for the program since beating then No. 6 ECU from May 10-12 last season…The Tulane pitching staff recorded double digit strikeouts in both games of the doubleheader (11 – Game 1 & 17 in Game 2) and have now reached double figures in strikeouts in 19 of the team's 33 games (four more than the team had in 62 games last season)…The program's 17 strikeouts against Rice in the second game were the most for the program since getting 19 against Penn during the 2023 season (3/10/23)...The team's 20 hits in the first game were the most for the program since also getting 20 during the 2021 season against Louisiana (2/21/21).

TICKETS
Tickets for the baseball season and the upcoming football campaign can be purchased by calling 504-861-WAVE (9283), logging on to TulaneTix.com or visiting the ticket office at the James W. Wilson Jr. Center.

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