Baseball Plays A Neutral Site Midweek Against No. 3 Mississippi State in Biloxi on Tuesday

Tuesday, March 10

Biloxi, MS

6:05 p.m.

Tulane University

Mississippi State

Baseball Plays A Neutral Site Midweek Against No. 3 Mississippi State in Biloxi on Tuesday

Mar 9, 2026 | Baseball

TUESDAY: WATCH | LISTEN | LIVE STATS

TULANE GAME NOTES

NEW ORLEANS – The Tulane baseball team (9-7) plays a neutral site contest in Biloxi, Miss. against No. 3 Mississippi State (14-2) on Tuesday, March 10, starting at 6 p.m. at Kessler Federal Park. The team is in the stretch of four straight games against ranked opponents after playing three against No. 17 TCU over the weekend.

Media
The game against Mississippi State will be broadcasted on the SEC Network +. Corey Gloor, the Voice of the Green Wave, will call the action on the Tulane Sports Network from Learfield on 88.3 WRBH -FM/Varsity Network on Tuesday. Airtime for the radio/stream for the game is 15 minutes before first pitch.

Pitching Matchup
Tulane is slated to start junior righty Jack Brafa. Brafa is 1-0 on the year with 4.00 ERA. This will be his sixth appearance and his second start. In nine innings worked he has struck out 13 while limiting opponents to a .167 batting average against. He is in his first year at Tulane after transferring from Tennessee Tech.

Mississippi State is slated to start left-handed pitcher Charlie Foster. Foster is making his fifth appearance of the season and third start. He has struck out 12 in 6.2 innings worked with a 4.05 ERA.

Scouting Mississippi State
Mississippi State comes in ranked in each of the four polls. They moved up to No. 3 in both D1 Baseball and the USA Today Coaches Poll this week.

The team swept Lipscomb over the weekend by a combined score of 43-7.

The only two losses the Bulldogs have suffered this season came to fellow ranked opponents in then No. 1 UCLA and then No. 10 Southern Miss by a combined two runs.

Mississippi State sports a very balanced offensive attack with 10 different players already having reached double figures in RBIs.

Reed Stallman leads the club with his .452 batting average. He has seven extra base knocks (four doubles and three home runs) on his 14 hits plus has driven in 16

Bryce Chance is hitting .429 with 18 runs scored, 18 hits, four doubles, and 10 RBIs.

Ace Reese is also hitting over .400 (.406) with 24 runs, 26 hits, 10 doubles, four home runs, 21 RBIs and 48 total bases.

Noah Sullivan leads the team with his five home runs and 11 walks.

Tomas Valincius is 3-0 on the campaign with 26 strikeouts in 20.2 innings worked.

Ryan McPherson is also 3-0 on the year. He has 28 strikeouts in 23 innings worked.

Duke Stone is the third member of starting staff with a 3-0 mark. He also has fanned.

Jack Gleason has been the top reliever with a 1-0 record and 17 strikeouts in 9.1 innings thrown.

The program is coached by Brian O'Connor. O'Connor is in his first year in charge of the Bulldogs after working as the head man at the University of Virginia the last 22 years. He won the 2015 Men's College World Series during his time with the Cavaliers.

Series History
Mississippi State leads the all-time series with Tulane by a 77-34 count since the first game of the series in 1904 with the Green Wave falling by 5-0 and 8-2 scores. The last time the two teams met saw Tulane win two-of-three from the Bulldogs in 2022 at home (3/4-6/22). The Green Wave won the final two games of the set by scores of 11-10 and 5-4.

Against the SEC
Tulane is 158-287 all-time against current members of the Southeastern Conference (SEC). Many of those games came when Tulane was still a member of the SEC. The most wins for the Green Wave against the SEC has come at the expense of Ole Miss with 39. Tulane first faced an SEC opponent in 1897 against Alabama. The only school in the SEC that Tulane has never faced off with is Kentucky.

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

Who's Hot in the Last Five Games
Hugh Pinkney is hitting .444

Jason Wachs sports a .375 batting average with four runs, six hits, two doubles, six RBis, and five walks.

Matthias Haas is hitting .313 with five hits, a home run, a double, and four RBIs.

Jake Toporek has thrown 3.2 innings with three strikeouts.

Tom Vincent has appeared in three games. He unscored upon with a 1-0 record and a save.

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

Jason Wachs has reached base safely in all 16 games this season

Matthias Haas has reached base safely in each of the last 12 games.

Nate Johnson is hitting .462 with nine RBIs in games her starts.

Tulane is 7-2 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 five games at first, five 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 39 in the first 16 games.

The program's pitching is averaging an impressive 9.4 strikeouts per game to place fifth 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 16 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 (8). He is second in walks (15) and stolen bases (9).

Jason Wachs is second in the league in RBIs (22) and doubles (7).

Jack Frankel leads in complete games with one.

J.D. Rodriguez leads the conference in wins (3).

Jude Abbadessa, Rodriguez, and Sam Larson are tied for fifth in appearances (7).

Kaikea Harrison is fifth in the league in runs scored (19).

Tye Wood is fifth in sacrifice flies (3).

Chun, AJ Groeneveld and Nate Johnson are tied for third in triples (1).

Tom Vincent is third in the conference in saves (2).

Trey Cehajic is seventh in strikeouts (25).

Cehajic, Beau Sampson and Frankel are tied for the lead in starts (4).

Notables From TCU Series - 3/6-8
The Horned Frogs were ranked 17th nationally in D1Baseball's Top 25 and 21st in USA Today's Coaches Poll.

The victory in the first game of the doubleheader against No. 17 TCU (3/8) was the team's first ranked victory since defeating then No. 6 ECU during the regular season of the 2024 campaign (5/12/24).

The doubleheader played against TCU (3/8) was the first for the program since playing a pair against Loyola Marymount last season (2/25/25)

Jay Uhlman won the 100th game of his Tulane career in the 8-4 Sunday (3.8) victory over the Horned Frogs. He is just the sixth Tulane baseball coach to ever reach the triple digit victory mark following Rick Jones - 818, Joey Brockoff - 641, Travis Jewett - 130, Milt Retif - 123, and Claude Simons Jr. - 102.

Jacob Moore made his season debut with 0.2 innings worked in the first game of the series against the Horned Frogs (3/6).

Tulane's all-time record against current schools in the Big 12 is now 162-139.

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 returns home to host Creighton University (5-7) from March 13-15 on Greer Field at Turchin Stadium. Game times are scheduled for 6:30 p.m., 2 p.m., and 1 p.m. The three-games will be the start of a nine-game homestand for the program.

DOWNLOAD THE APP
Download the official mobile app of Tulane Athletics. Now, you can stay in touch with the Green Wave anytime and anywhere on your Android or iOS mobile device
.
FOLLOW ON SOCIAL MEDIA
For behind-the-scenes coverage, follow Tulane baseball (@GreenWaveBSB) on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

TICKETS
Tickets for the baseball season and the upcoming volleyball and football campaigns 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.

GREEN WAVE CLUB
Giving to the Green Wave Club provides Tulane Athletics with the resources student‑athletes need to excel in competition and in the classroom. Your support directly improves the lives of current and future Green Wave student‑athletes and enhances Tulane's competitiveness in intercollegiate athletics. Make a gift today by calling (504) 865‑5356, emailing green waveclub@tulane.edu, or visiting GreenWaveClub.com.

---TulaneGreenWave.com---