Baseball Finishes Homestand Against Grambling State

Wednesday, March 25

New Orleans, LA

6:30 p.m.

Tulane University

Grambling State

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Baseball Finishes Homestand Against Grambling State

Mar 24, 2026 | Baseball

WEDNESDAY: WATCH | LISTEN | LIVE STATS

TULANE GAME NOTES

NEW ORLEANS – The Tulane baseball team (13-12), who have won two in a row, finishes up the team's nine-game homestand hosting a midweek contest against non-conference opponent Grambling State (8-14) on Wednesday, March 25, on Greer Field at Turchin Stadium. The game time is 6:30 p.m.

Promotion
Wednesday: Bark in the Park

Media
The non-conference game against Grambling State 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 FM/ Varsity Network on Wednesday. Airtime for the radio/stream for the game is 15 minutes before first pitch.

Pitching Matchup
Tulane is starting junior righty Jack Brafa. Brafa making his fourth start and 10th appearance of the season. He is 2-0 with a 3.86 ERA. Brafa has struck out 21 in 16.1 innings thrown while limiting opponents to a .193 batting average against.

Grambling State has not announced the program's expected starter.

Scouting Grambling State
The Tigers swept the conference weekend over Alabama A&M by a combined score of 41-15 in the three games.

The Tigers are off to a 5-1 start in the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC)

Hasani Johnson leads the team with his .338 batting average and 23 runs. He also has walked 23 times plus four doubles, a triple and 10 RBIs with eight stolen bases.

Charles Ashe III has driven in 19 on his 20 hits to go along with three home runs and a .385 batting average.

Cameron Hill sports a .337 batting average and 30 hits, five doubles, five home runs, 26 RBIs, 50 total bases, and a .562 slugging percentage.

Julio VasQuez leads the club with his six home runs to go along with 22 RBIs.

Rafael Capistran has been the top reliever with 24 strikeouts in 16 innings out of the bullpen.

Keyon Guillory has a 2-1 record with 30 strikeouts in 26.1 innings worked.

The program is under the guidance of Davin Pierre. Pierre is in his fifth year in charge of the Tigers and sports a 115-127 record.

Series History
Tulane is 3-0 all-time against the Tigers of Grambling since the first game of the series in 1983. The last time the two in-state rivals squared off was in 2024 with the Green Wave winning 9-4 (3/6/24)

Against the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC)
Tulane is 73-6 all-time against current schools in the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC). The team first met a SWAC opponent when the Tulane took on and lost to Southern 1-0 in 1907. The team's most wins against a SWAC opponent is 29 against Southern. The last time that Tulane faced off with a SWAC opponent was last season when the team defeated Jackson State by a 16-6 score at home (3/12/25)

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

Who's Hot in the Last Five Games
Trent Liolios is hitting .500 with five hits, four runs, two doubles, three RBIs, seven total bases plus seven walks and no strikeouts.

Jason Wachs is hitting .400 with eight runs, two doubles, a triple, a home run, four RBIs, seven walks, a slugging percentage of .867, and an on-base percentage of .609

Nate Johnson is hitting .368 with four runs, seven hits, two doubles, four walks, and four RBIs.

Kaikea Harrison is hitting .300 with five RBIs, five runs, and six hits.

Jack Brafa has appeared in two games with seven strikeouts in five innings along with a 1.80 ERA

J.D. Rodriguez has started two games with a 1.42 ERA along with six strikeouts in 6.1 innings worked.

Sam Larson has made three appearances with seven strikeouts in 4.1 innings thrown.

Jude Abbadessa has pitched in two games and 7.1 innings with one run allowed and six strikeouts.

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

Jason Wachs has reached base safely in all 25 games this season

Johnny Elliott has reached base safely in his last 10 games.

Nate Johnson is hitting .348 with two home runs and 16 RBIs in the games he starts this year.

Kaikea Harrison leads the team with nine multiple run scored games.

Tulane sports an 10-5 record this year in games that Hugh Pinkney starts behind the plate.

The program is also 3-1 in games that Matthias Haas starts as the designated hitter.

Haas has started at four different positions this season with five games at first, eight games at third, five games in right field, and four games as the designated hitter.

Nate Johnson has started at three different spots on the infield with seven starts at first, four at second, and three at third. He also has batted in six different starting lineup spots in the order (4th - 9th).

Tye Wood leads the club with seven two-out RBIs.

Nolan Nawrocki and Brett Rowell have the team's only successful pinch hits on the year

After leading the American Conference last season with 131 doubles as team, Tulane is again among the leaders this season and are currently second in two-baggers with 58 in the first 25 games.

The Green Wave lead the conference in walks (140) and fourth in stolen bases (38).

Tulane is third in hit by pitches (41) and fifth in fielding percentage (.971)

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

The Tulane pitching staff has recorded 12 games with double figure strikeout totals this season.

The program is third in shutouts (1) and fourth in ERA (4.79).

Of the 23 new players on the roster this season, 19 have already made their Tulane debuts following the first 25 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 hit by pitches (10) and walks (24). He is also fourth in stolen bases (10).

Jason Wachs leads the conference in doubles (10) and seventh in RBIs (27).

Jack Frankel leads in complete games with one.

J.D. Rodriguez is fifth in wins (3) and tied for seventh in appearances along with Jake Toporek (10), and eighth in strikeouts (34).

Jude Abbadessa and Sam Larson are tied for second in appearances (12).

Kaikea Harrison is third doubles (9) and fifth in runs scored (28).

Tye Wood is second sacrifice flies (4) and second in hit by pitches (9)

Tom Vincent is sixth in saves (2).

Trey Cehajic and Frankel are tied for the lead in starts (6).

Wachs and Abbadessa Honored By the American
Jason Wachs and Jude Abbadessa were both named to the American Conference Weekly Honor Roll following the sixth week of the season (3/23).

Wachs, a sophomore outfielder from Pembroke Pines, Florida, helped lead the Tulane offense on the week as he hit .400 with eight runs scored, a pair of doubles, a triple, a home run and 13 total bases. He also walked seven times, had an on-base percentage of .609, a slugging percentage of .867 while driving in four runs.

Abbadessa, a graduate student from Endicott, New York, aided the pitching staff to four wins on the week as he went 2-0 with a 1.23 ERA in 7.1 innings in two appearances out of the bullpen. He faced 28 batters, allowed just one run on five hits with two walks and six strikeouts.

This is the second time that Wachs has been honored by the conference in his career (Honor Roll - 5/12/25). This is the first time Abbadessa has been selected in his Tulane career. Overall, this is the fourth and fifth times that Tulane baseball has been honored weekly by the conference

Notables from Memphis Series - 3/20-22
Tulane has now won its first conference series in five of the last six years and in eight of the last nine seasons when a conference season was played* (The 2020 American Conference season was not played due to COVID-19 pandemic)

Brett Rowell's pinch-hit single in the first game of the series (3/20) was only the second successful pinch hit of the season for the program.

The team's 11 hits in the series opener (3/20) were the second-most hits in a game this season and the most since the program had 13 hits against Loyola Marymount in the second game of the season (2/14).

The 12 strikeouts recorded by the Tulane pitching staff in the first game (3/20) was the 12th time the program has reached double figures in strikeouts this season.

Jason Wachs, Kaikea Harrison and Tye Wood all drove in three runs against Memphis in the second game of the series (3/21). It was the second time that Wachs and Harrison have driven in three runs in a game this season and the first for Wood.

Over the last eight games, Tulane's relief pitchers have thrown 48.2 innings with just 10 runs allowed while striking out 56.

Evan Burg's RBI in the eighth of the third game of the series (3/22) was the first of his collegiate career.

Beau Sampson is the fourth different Tulane pitcher to record a save this season as he picked it up in the series finale against Memphis (3/22).

The 12 runs scored against Memphis is the final game of the series was the program's seventh time in double figures on the campaign (7-0 record).

The Green Wave are 78-52 all-time against Memphis.

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 hosts 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 back into league play and travels to Birmingham, Alabama to take on UAB for a three-game set from March 27 - 29 at Young Memorial Field. Games times are 5 p.m., 2 p.m. and 1 p.m.

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