The Tulane baseball team (18-17, 5-5 American) started the weekend series with a thrilling 4-1 victory over East Carolina (21-13-1, 6-4 American) on Friday evening, April 10, on Greer Field at Turchin Stadium.
Trey Cehajic (2-3) started on the mound for Tulane. He went 5.1 innings and allowed four hits and a run with two strikeouts and two walks. Jack Brafa was the first man out of the bullpen. He went the next 1.1 innings with one hit and walk allowed while striking out two. Jude Abbadessa retired the only man he faced to end the seventh. Beau Sampson had a scoreless eighth with a hit allowed. Sam Larson locked down the game, striking out the side in the ninth for his third save of the season.
The Tulane offense was limited to four hits and one walk but made them count as only one was left on base. Tye Wood had a hit and two runs scored. Nate Johnson totaled a hit. Jason Wachs scored a run and drove in a pair. Trent Liolios launched his first home run of the season to knock in a pair. James Agabedis drew the team’s walk.
ECU’s Luke Payne (1-1) took the loss. Payne allowed three unearned runs in five innings with four strikeouts. Gavin Marley threw the final three innings with just one run allowed to finish things out for the Pirates.
Tulane scored first on a Wachs RBI ground out in the first inning.
The Pirates tied the game in the top of the second on a Matthew Lashley’s two-out single to score Colby Wallace.
Liolios gave the team the lead for good in the bottom of the fourth with a two-run home run. It was his first home run of the season.
A sacrifice fly from Wachs in the sixth added a run to the advantage, 4-1, in what would ultimately be the final score.
Next, Tulane plays the second game of the series against the Pirates on Saturday, April 11, starting at 6:30 p.m.
Notable
Jason Wachs saw his on-base streak end at 60 games from the end of last season and the first 34 games this year as he failed to reach base safely on either a hit, a walk or hit-by-pitch although he did reach base on an error (catcher’s interference in the fourth(… The game was the 11th multi-RBI performance of the season for Wachs…The Green Wave are now 14-8 in games that Hugh Pinkney starts behind the plate…The program is 4-2 when Nate Johnson’s bats in the second spot in the lineup…This was only the third game this season that Kaikea Harrison was not the lead-off hitter (vs. Creighton – 3/14 & vs. ECU – 4/10) …This was only the second game this season that Tulane has won when committing two errors this year…The game was the third time this season and the second time in the last three games that Tulane’s pitching staff has held an opponent to one run or less…The home run from Trent Liolios in the fourth inning was his first of the season after he hit 16 last season for Northwestern….Trey Cehajic’s 5.1 inning performance was only the eighth time a Tulane starter has pitched five innings or more and only the sixth time a starter has gotten past the fifth…The Green Wave improved to 13-5 when scoring first and 12-7 when scoring in the opening inning…Tulane has won four straight games at home over ECU and seven of the last 10 overall games of the series
READ MORE:Tulane starts conference weekend series With 4-1 victory over ECU
