Baseball Returns Home To Host Three-Game Series Against Eastern Kentucky

Friday, February 27

New Orleans, LA

6:30 p.m.

Tulane University

Eastern Kentucky

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Baseball Returns Home To Host Three-Game Series Against Eastern Kentucky

Feb 26, 2026 | Baseball

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TULANE GAME NOTES

NEW ORLEANS – The Tulane baseball team (6-3), after two mid-week games this week, returns home to host Eastern Kentucky (2-6) for a three-game set from Feb. 28 - March 1 on Greer Field at Turchin Stadium. Games times are slated for 6:30 p.m., 4 p.m., 12:30 p.m.

Promotions
Friday: Country Night, Free Cowboy Hat for the first 500 fans, Friday Night Bingo
Saturday: Military Appreciation, Free tickets for Active Duty Military Members and Veterans through Vet Tix
Sunday: Riptide Kids Club Day, Collectible Baseball Card Giveaway & post-game autographs from Will Clements, Kaikea Harrison, Sam Larson, Tanner Chun, Brett Rowell, and Jack Frankel

Media
The contests against Eastern Kentucky will be broadcasted 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. Ken Berthelot will broadcast the game on Saturday with Paul Boron filling in on Sunday. Joey Brockhoff joins the radio broadcast this weekend as the color commentator. The radio broadcast will also be simulcasted on ESPN+. Airtime for the radio/stream for each game is 15 minutes before first pitch.

Pitching Matchups
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 each of the first two Fridays this season with a 7.11 ERA in 6.1 innings thrown. He has struck out nine but has also allowed eight walks and seven hits.

The Colonels will start sophomore right-handed pitcher Carson van Haaren. van Haaren is 0-1 on the year with a 11.74 ERA. He has started two games and has totaled seven strikeouts in 7.2 innings thrown.

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. This will be his third Saturday start of the season. He has thrown six innings with 11 strikeouts.

Eastern Kentucky sends righty Jacob Price to the hill. Price, a redshirt junior, has started the season well with a 2.45 ERA and eight strikeouts in 11.0 innings thrown. This will be his third start and fourth appearance of the season.

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. Frankel has been the team's best starting pitcher in the early going with a 1-0 record to go along with a 1.64 ERA and eight strikeouts in 11.0 innings thrown. He threw a complete game with one run allowed in his last start against Harvard last weekend in earning the victory.

EKU has still not determined the team's starter for Sunday

Scouting EKU
The Colonels have started the 2026 season with a 2-6 record after a close 6-5 loss to Louisville on the road on Wednesday.

The team arrives in New Orleans having lost four consecutive games.

Dylan Littlefield is leading the club with his .424 batting average, 14 hits, four home runs,15 RBIs and 28 total bases.

Pedro Moreno is hitting .333 with 11 hits, nine runs, five walks, and three stolen bases.

Jay Douglas sports a .314 batting average with 11 hits, eight runs scored, and three stolen bases.

Jacob Price has been the top pitcher with a 2.45 ERA in 11 innings thrown.

Jake Bell has made three appearances and has yet to allow a walk or run in three innings thrown.

The program is under new leadership as Jan Weisberg is in his first year with the program. Overall, this is his 20th year as a collegiate head coach. He has a career record of 597-259-1.

Series History
This will be the second time that Tulane has faced off against Eastern Kentucky. The previous match-up was a 16-6 win for the Green Wave during the 1986 NCAA South Regional in Baton Rouge (5/23/86).

Against the Atlantic Sun
Tulane is 16-4 all-time against current schools in the Atlantic Sun (ASUN) since the first game against Lipscomb in 1966. The last time that Tulane took on an ASUN opponent was against FGCU during the 2020 season.

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 35 consecutive games dating back to the end of last season.

Who's Hot in the Last Five Games
Jason Wachs has led the attack with a .450 batting average along with nine hits including two doubles, and 10 RBIs.

Tanner Chun is hitting .417 with seven runs, five hits, two doubles, four RBIs, eight walks, and six stolen bases.

Matthias Haas is hitting .333 with four runs, six hits, and four RBIs.

Nate Johnson has three hits, six RBIs, and three runs scored.

Jack Frankel is 1-0 with a 1.29 ERA along with three strikeouts in his seven innings thrown.

Jack Brafa sports a 1.80 ERA with five strikeouts in five innings worked out of the pen.

Sam Larson is 1-0 with seven strikeouts in 3.2 innings thrown.

Jake Toporek has thrown in a pair of games and struck out five in 3.2 innings out of the bullpen

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

Jason Wachs and Tye Wood have reached base safely in all nine games this season

Tulane is 6-0 this year in games that Hugh Pinkney starts behind the plate.

The program is also 3-0 in games that Matthias Haas starts as the designated hitter.

Haas has started at four different positions this season with a game at first, two games at third, three games in right field and three games 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 28 in the first nine games.

The program's pitching is averaging an impressive 10.8 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, 19 have already made their Tulane debuts following the first nine games of the season. The only newbies that haven't appeared in a game yet this season are RHP Max Mazinter, OF Cole Berge, OF/3B Matthew Major and RHP Owen Geiss.

Individual Conference Leaders
Tanner Chun leads the American Conference in walks with 10, hit by pitches with four and stolen bases with seven.

Jason Wachs ranks first in the league in doubles with five and RBIs with 16.

J.D. Rodriguez is the league leader in wins with two.

Notables From South Alabama Game - 2/25
Tulane's pitching staff came within one out of throwing the team's first no-hitter since the 2020 season (2/28/20 - against Middle Tennessee State) and the third since 2005.

The 15 runs scored in the 15-2 victory over South Alabama was the most for the program since scoring 20 against East Carolina last season (4/25/25).

Nate Johnson's six RBIs were a career high and the most for the program in a game since Connor Rasmussen also knocked in six during the 2024 season against Memphis (5/3/24).

James Agabedis' grand slam was the first for the program since Gavin Schulz hit one against Florida Atlantic last season (5/2/25). Schulz's grand slam was one of six that Tulane hit last season as a team.

The program now trails the all-time series with South Alabama by a 27-24 count.

The win improves Tulane to 204-160 all-time against current Sun Belt Conference members.

Notables From UNO Game - 2/24
Tulane has now lost four straight games to the Privateers and have not defeated them on the road since the 2024 campaign (4/9/24).

Caden Tarango (2.0 IP) and LuisPablo Navarro (1.1 IP) both made their Tulane debuts in the game.

The Green Wave are now 97-75 all-time against its in-city rival.

The game against UNO was the first of seven the team will play against Southland Conference (SLC) opponents this season.

Tulane is 308-107 all-time against the SLC.

Chun and Frankel Honored By the American
Tanner Chun and Jack Frankel were both named to the American Conference's Weekly Honor Roll following the second week of the season (2/23/26).
Chun, a sophomore outfielder from Honolulu, Hawaii, sparked the Tulane offense as he hit .556 with six runs scored, two doubles, two extra base hits, a slugging percentage of .778, six stolen bases, and an on-base percentage of .750. He also totaled five hits, four RBIs and seven total bases while reaching base safely in all four games.

Frankel, a sophomore pitcher from Plano, Tex., allowed just one run on seven hits in a complete game seven inning victory over Harvard. His seven innings thrown was the team's first complete game since April 25, 2025. His seven innings on the mound was the most for a Tulane pitcher since Michael Lombardi also went seven frames against Florida Atlantic in the American Baseball Conference Tournament (5/20/25). Frankel also struck out three without walking a man.

This is the first weekly conference recognition for both Chun and Frankel during their careers at Tulane and for the program this year. Overall, the program has been recognized by the conference 12 times the last two seasons.

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 gets on the road to take on Nicholls on Tuesday, March 3, at 6:30 p.m. The game will start a brief four-game road trip for the program as the team also takes on TCU from March 6-8 in Fort Worth, Texas.

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