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Baseball Takes Advantage of Houston Miscue In 2-1 Win
April 11, 2003 NEW ORLEANS, La. - The Green Wave scored two runs in the sixth and freshman southpaw Brian Bogusevic gave the home team a solid 6.2 inning start as the Tulane University baseball team defeated Conference USA-leader Houston 2-1 Friday night at Turchin Stadium. Trailing 1-0 after five and half, the Green Wave mounted a two-out rally as senior centerfielder Jonny Kaplan singled through the left side of the infield. Senior left fielder Aaron Feldman followed when he ripped a fast-rolling ground ball to a similar spot that was snared on a diving attempt by Houston third baseman Hyung Cho, but Cho's throw to first sailed into foul territory and Kaplan was able to score to tie the game. Feldman went to second on the play, and with new life, sophomore second baseman Tommy Manzella beat out an infield single to Cho and Feldman scored from second base for the second unearned run of the inning to account for the final score. "It's nice to win the first one, and that gives you a chance to win the series," head coach Rick Jones said. "This is exactly the kind of game we expected it to be. Bogusevic was outstanding. He had to be based on who we were facing, and (preseason All-Conference USA reliever) Joey Charron did a great job out of the pen." With the win, Tulane improved to 24-11 on the year and snapped a four-game losing streak to the Cougars to jump to 7-6 in C-USA play. Houston, meanwhile, falls to 18-16 overall and 9-4 in league action.
Bogusevic came back out for the seventh and retired the first two batters he faced, but Houston left fielder singled to chase the rookie from the contest. Fellow freshman Matt Goebel came on to face Cho, who singled through the left side of the infield to put runners at first and second, but Jones called on Charron who responed by striking out first baseman Thanos Papavasiliou to get out of the inning unscathed.
Houston put the tying run at second base in the eighth when Sam Mitchell singled and advance a base on a groundout to third off the bat of Stuart Musslewhite, but Charron got Nick Bott to fly out harmlessly to right and threw a three-up, three-down ninth to earn his sixth save of the season. Both teams had opportunities to get on the board early in the contest as the Green Wave had two on with two out in the third as junior shortstop Tony Giarratano doubled and junior third baseman Turner Brumby drew a base-on-balls. But Cougar starter Brad Sullivan got first baseman Michael Aubrey, who ripped a long foul ball over the wall in left during his at-bat, to strike out swinging to strand the pair. One inning later, Houston had two on with one out, but Bogusevic made a heads-up throw to home when Musslewhite attempted a squeeze bunt that bounce back to the mound to nail Papavasiliou at the plate and got out of the inning one hitter later when Kaplan snared a fly ball in center off the bat of second baseman Nick Bott. The Cougars got on the board in the sixth with a two-out rally of their own when Papavasiliou walked to lead off the frame, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by designated hitter Cole Bruce and score on a two-out double by Musslewhite to take a 1-0 lead before the Green Wave mounted the comeback in the bottom of the stanza. Sullivan was nailed with the loss despite not giving up an earned run in a six-inning start. The junior right-hander struck out four and walked three while giving up four hits to fall to 4-4. Bogusevic, who made his first weekend start on Friday, got the win to improve to 2-0 by giving up just one earned run on seven hits while striking out two and walking a pair. Tulane and Houston continue the series on Saturday with a 2 p.m. start, and the two teams will close out the weekend on Sunday with first pitch slated for 1 p.m. |
 
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