Baseball Opens Home Campaign With Series Against Harvard This Weekend

Friday, February 20

New Orleans, LA

6:30 p.m

Tulane University

Harvard

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Baseball Opens Home Campaign With Series Against Harvard This Weekend

Feb 19, 2026 | Baseball

FRIDAY: WATCH | LISTEN | LIVE STATS
SATURDAY: WATCH | LISTEN | LIVE STATS
SUNDAY: WATCH | LISTEN | LIVE STATS

TULANE GAME NOTES

NEW ORLEANS – The Tulane baseball team (2-2) returns home following the West Coast trip to California in the opening weekend to start the home portion of the 2026 schedule with a three-game set against Harvard (0-0) from Feb. 20-22 on Greer Field at Turchin Stadium..

Promotions
Friday: Team Poster Giveaway, Schedule Can Koozie to first 500 fans, Friday Night Bingo
Saturday: Short Sleeve Hoodie for the first 250 fans
Sunday: Riptide Kids Club Day, Collectible Baseball Card Giveaway & post-game autographs from Jude Abbadessa, LuisPablo Navarro, Nolan Nawrocki, Tom Vincent, and Cole Berge

Media
The contests against Harvard will be shown on ESPN+. The Voice of the Green Wave, Corey Gloor, will call the action on the Tulane Sports Network from Learfield on WRBH 88.3/Varsity Network on Friday and Saturday. Paul Boron will fill in on the radio on Sunday. Joey Brockhoff joins the radio broadcast this weekend as the color commentator. The broadcast will also be simulcast on ESPN+. Airtime for radio for each game of the series is 15 minutes before first pitch.

Pitching Matchup
The Green Wave will start graduate student Trey Cehajic on Friday. The right-hander went 5-2 last year in his second year as a member of the Green Wave. He sported an ERA of 4.89 with 57 strikeouts in 57 innings worked. He started the season opener against Loyola Marymount and went 3.1 innings with five strikeouts.

The Crimson, who are starting their season this weekend, will counter with right-handed pitcher Gio Calasante. Calasante went 2-4 last season with 7.11 ERA along with 36 strikeouts in 31.2 innings thrown while limiting opponents to a .246 batting average against.

Tulane will start lefty Beau Sampson on Saturday. The junior transfer from St. George, Utah played at the University of Oklahoma last season where he appeared in 13 games with a 1-0 record and 10 strikeouts in 10.2 innings pitched out of the bullpen. He started his season strong against the Lions of Loyola Marymount going the first 4.1 innings with nine strikeouts. Both runs he allowed came on one hit. The Lions only hit .188 against Sampson in his outing.

Harvard will send lefty Luca Alagheband to the hill for the second game. The Toronto, Canada native pitched in 18 games in relief with 28 strikeouts in 25.1 innings thrown as a freshman.

On Sunday, the Green Wave will start sophomore right-handed pitcher Jack Frankel. Frankel hails from Plano, Texas and is in his first year with the program. Last season, while at Liberty, he went 4-3 with a 3.40 ERA. He also struck out 32 in 45 innings pitched. He had a strong start in the series finale against LMU to start the season with five strikeouts in four innings while allowing just two hits and one run.

Harvard's Sunday starter is slated to be righty Vedant Sharma. Sharma, a true freshman from Timnath, Colo., is making his collegiate pitching debut in the game.

Scouting Harvard
Harvard were the Ivy League Tournament Runner-up last season. The program had a 14-28 record and a mark of 9-12 in the Ivy League during the regular season. The Crimson are opening the 2026 season with this three-game series against Tulane. Harvard plays each of the team's first 20 games on the road. The program is picked to finish fourth in the Ivy League this season. The team's top returning player is infielder/pitcher Gio Colasante. Colasante hit .314 last season with 10 home runs, 33 RBIs and 88 total bases. The team also returns hitters Tyler Shuman (.291 batting average, 20 RBIs) and Jack Rickheim (.276 batting average, 24 RBIs and 43 hits). Colasante registered 36 strikeouts in 31.2 innings thrown last season and was First Team All-Ivy League The program also returns Luke Alagheband (28 strikeouts in 25.1 innings thrown) and Ryan Hughes (four saves). Head Coach Bill Decker is in his 14th year at Harvard with a 191-271 record. Overall, he is in his 36th year as collegiate head coach with a career record of 728-528.

Series History
Harvard leads the all-time series with Tulane 1-0. The only previous game of the series was a 14-11 victory for the Crimson at the NCAA South II Regional in Baton Rouge in 1998.

Against the Ivy League
The Green Wave are 16-5 all-time against schools in the Ivy League since the first matchup in 1986 against Cornell University. The last time Tulane faced an Ivy League school was in 2024 when the program swept the series from Yale at home. The Green Wave have played against all eight members of the Ivy League with Columbia being the most frequent opponent at six times.

Coming In On A Streak
Jason Wachs, despite seeing his hitting streak snapped at 23 games following the opening game of the season against LMU, has still now reached base safely in 30 consecutive games dating back to the end of last season.

Who's Hot in the First Four Games
Kaikea Harrison has started the season with eight hits in his first 19 at bats for a .421 batting average. He has a pair of three-hit performances to his name this year in four games after having two all of last season in 56 games. Harrison also has scored five runs and totaled a pair of doubles.

Tanner Chun has a pair of doubles in his first three hits this season plus he has driven in four runs.

Nolan Nawrocki has totaled five hits including three doubles in the first four games in a Green Wave uniform.

A.J. Groeneveld has begun his Tulane career with four hits including both a double and triple. He is also tied for third on the team in RBIs with three along with Matthias Haas and Tye Wood.

Jason Wachs leads the club in RBIs with six and is tied for the team lead with three doubles.

J.D. Rodriguez and Beau Sampson are tied for the team lead with nine strikeouts.

Every out that Jack Brafa recorded in his two innings of relief against LMU was a strikeout.

Trends
Dating back to the end of last season, two of last three hits that James Agabedis III has are home runs.

Tulane is one of only two teams in the American Conference, along with UAB, that has not played a home game yet this season.

Kaikea Harrison, Tye Wood and Nolan Nawrocki have all registered a hit in each game this season.

Tulane is 2-0 this year in games that Hugh Pinkney starts behind the plate.

The program is also 2-0 in games that Matthias Haas starts as the designated hitter.

After leading the American Conference last season with 131 doubles as team, Tulane is again leading the league in two-baggers with 14 in the first four games.

The program's pitching is averaging an impressive 12.4 strikeouts per game to place second in the American Conference. Tulane ranked second in the league in strikeouts a year ago with an average of 9.8 per contest.

Of the 23 new players on the roster this season, 16 have already made their Tulane debuts following the first four games of the season. The only newbies that haven't appeared in a game yet this season are RHP Max Mazinter, RHP Caden Tarango, OF Cole Berge, OF/3B Matthew Major, RHP Owen Geiss, LHP LuisPablo Navarro, and RHP Aidan Rath.

Notables From UCLA Game
Tulane's game against No. 2 ranked (Coaches)/No. 1 (D1 Baseball) UCLA was the first time that the program has faced a ranked opponent since squaring off with No. 13 Southern Miss last season. The previous last time that Tulane faced a top 10 ranked opponent was against then No. 6 Oregon State in the Corvallis Regional (5/31/24). The last time Tulane defeated a top 10 opponent was earlier that season when the program swept then No. 6 ECU at home by scores of 6-5, 7-3 and 10-9 (5/10-12/24).

Notables from the LMU Series
Tulane hit .275 as a team in the three-game set with 30 hits including 15 extra base hits.

The team's pitching staff recorded 44 strikeouts in 26 innings worked. The team's three starting pitchers in the series: Trey Cehajic, Beau Sampson, and Jack Frankel combined to throw 11.2 innings with 19 strikeouts. Both of the team's victories were earned by members of the bullpen in J.D. Rodriguez and Jack Brafa. Jude Abbadessa appeared in two of the three games of the series with both of his appearances coming in the ninth inning...He threw 1.2 scoreless with two strikeouts. The Green Wave bullpen only allowed a total of two earned run in 14.1 innings of use in the opening series while also registering 25 strikeouts. The Tulane pitching staff registered double digit strikeouts in every game of the series (14 - Gm 1, 11 - Gm 2 and 19 in Gm 3).

The Green Wave's 19 strikeouts as a pitching staff in the series finale against LMU was the most for the program in 54 years and tied for third all-time at the school with the 2023 team's 19 strikeouts against Penn. The team last struck out more than 19 when 21 strikeouts were recorded against Cornell of Iowa in 1972. The 1965 team struck out 20 against Ole Miss.

Of the team's top pitching strikeout totals in school history, six have been achieved since the start of the 2023 season (19 at LMU - 2/15/26, 19 vs. Pennsylvania - 3/10/23, 17 vs. Rice - 4/5/25, 16 at Southeastern Louisiana - 2/19/25, 16 at Southeastern Louisiana - 3/12/25, and 16 vs. Northwestern - 2/16/24)

Green Wave Chosen For Fourth and Has Two Named Preseason All-Conference
In a vote of the league's coaches, Tulane was picked for fourth and had two players selected as American Preseason All-Conference. The Green Wave were chosen for fourth overall with 57 points. The team also saw outfielder Jason Wachs and designated hitter Matthias Haas chosen as Preseason American All-Conference.

The 2026 Schedule
The Green Wave will host 27 games at Greer Field at Turchin Stadium, along with one neutral-site game in Mississippi and 28 road contests in 2026. Tulane will compete across seven states, including matchups in California, Alabama, Texas, Mississippi, Kansas, Florida, and North Carolina. Notable opponents include seven teams that participated in the 2025 NCAA Tournament: Southern Miss (2 games), UTSA (3), Creighton (3), East Carolina (3), TCU (3), Mississippi State (1), UCLA (1), and LSU (1).

The 2026 Schedule - Part Two
Tulane is playing games against five teams this season that are ranked in the USA Today's Preseason Coaches' Poll in No. 1 LSU, No. 2 UCLA, No. 6 Mississippi State, No. 10 TCU, and No. 20 Southern Miss.

Uncommon Road Start
Tulane's start on the road this season is the first for the program since 2023 and only the 11th time since 1979 the program has not started the season with games in New Orleans (1979, 1980, 1982, 1993, 2002, 2006, 2013, 2015, 2023, and 2026)

A Brotherly Connection
Tulane has a pair of brothers on the 2026 roster in sophomore infielder Nate Johnson and graduate student infielder Jake Johnson. The two are Tulane's first set of brothers on a team since 2017 when twins Paul Gozzo, a catcher, and Sal Gozzo, an infielder, were playing for the Green Wave. The 2016 team also had brothers on the squad in Ross Massey, a left-handed pitcher, and Alex Massey, a right-handed pitcher.

Who is Back?
The Green Wave return 14 players from the 2025 squad that a made a run to the 2025 American Championship Game for the third straight season this season in James Agabedis (infielder), Kaikea Harrison (infielder), Matthias Haas (infielder/outfielder), Tanner Chun (outfielder), Julius Ejike-Charles (left-handed pitcher/outfielder), Jason Wachs (outfielder), Hugh Pinkney (catcher), J.D. Rodriguez (right-handed pitcher), Nate Johnson (infielder), Will Clements (right-handed pitcher), Michael Devenney (right-handed pitcher), Jacob Moore (right-handed pitcher), Blaise Wilcenski (right handed pitcher), and Trey Cehajic (right-handed pitcher)

Inside the Numbers of the Returners
The team's 14 returning players accounted for 52.7 percent of the runs (204/387), 53 percent of the hits (287/541), 55 percent of the doubles (72/131), 58 percent of the triples (7/12), 45 percent of the home runs (23/51), 49 percent of the RBIs (178/360), 52 percent of the total bases (442/849) and 55 percent of the walks (159/287). On the mound, the club returns 48.4 percent of the wins (16/33), 53 percent of the game started (31/58), 43 percent of the innings (212/532) and 34 percent of the strikeouts (308/547).

Newcomers
Tulane added 23 new players to the roster this year. The list includes seven graduate students (Tye Wood, Brett Rowell, Trent Liolios, Jack Johnson, Jake Toporek, Tom Vincent and Aidan Rath), a senior (Nolan Nawrocki), seven juniors (Jude Abbadessa, Sam Larson, Caden Tarango, Jack Brafa, Beau Sampson, Owen Geiss, and Max Maxinter), four sophomores (AJ Groeneveld, Jack Frankel, Johnny Elliott, and LuisPablo Navarro) and four true freshmen (Bryson Ayala, Cole Berge, Evan Burg and Matthew Major).

The 2025 Season Quick Hitters
Tulane went 33-25 last season and had five American All-Conference selections on the year in Michael Lombardi (P – 1st), Connor Rasmussen (2B – 1st), Gavin Schulz (DH – 2nd), Jason Wachs (All-Freshman) and Tanner Chun (All-Freshman). The five selections are tied with the 2024 team for the most for the program since 2016 (seven).

The team also had three chosen for the league's All-Tournament Team in Schulz, Tayler Montiel and Theo Bryant IV plus a pair on the Louisiana Sports Writers Association (LSWA) All-State Team in Lombardi and Rasmussen.

Additionally, the program had three players selected in the 2025 MLB Draft in Lombardi (Kansas City Royals – 2nd round), Montiel (Arizona Diamondbacks – 12th round), and Rasmussen (Kansas City Royals – 15th round).

2025 Fun Stat Facts
Jason Wachs was ninth in the conference in batting average (.335) and on-base percentage (.457). Wachs and Tanner Chun were tied for 10th in the league in triples (2). Matthias Haas ranked second in the conference in doubles (21) and 26th in batting average (.303). Kaikea Harrison was tied for the conference lead in sacrifice bunts (8) and 38th in batting average (.283). Trey Cehajic and Blaise Wilcenski were tied for 10th in the league in wins (5).

Up Next
Next, Tulane has a pair of road midweeks next week as the program travels to take on UNO on Feb. 24 across town and then makes the trip to Mobile, Alabama to square off with South Alabama on Feb. 25.

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