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March 19, 2007

NEW ORLEANS, La. - Three days after posting a career-best 14 strikeout and allowing just one single in a 6-0 win over Siena, Tulane University baseball standout Sean Morgan was named Conference USA Pitcher of the Week, the league announced Monday.

A junior right-hander from Sugar Land, Texas, Morgan did not allow a run in 8.0 solid innings while pitching his way around a trio of walks. The C-USA weekly honor is Morgan's second of the 2007 season and fourth of his career. It also marks the third weekly honor he received this season as Morgan claimed Midwest Pitching Performance of the Week honors last week from InsidePitching.com.

"It's not surprising," Tulane head coach Rick Jones said. "Sean could have been the Pitcher of the Week several times this year because he has had several dominant performances. From a head coach's standpoint, it's been a lot of fun to watch someone with the kind of command and dominant stuff that he's had this year."

Morgan got off to a bit of a rocky start in Friday's win, as he threw 30 pitches, issued a pair of walks and threw a wild pitch in the first before getting out of the frame with a strikeouts. The final out of the opening stanza was a sign of things to come, however, as he had at least one K in each inning he toed the rubber, including a pair of two-strikeout frames and striking out the side in the fifth and eighth innings. Eight of his 14 punchouts were called third strikes.

After the first inning, Morgan faced just one more then the minimum the rest of the way. The lone hit came in the second - a seeing-eye single off the bat of Siena designated hitter Eric Mruczek to lead off the frame - and the only other baserunner he allowed after the first was a one-out walk to catcher Phil Cahill in the eighth.

In his last two starts, Morgan has a sparkling 0.53 ERA, 27 strikeouts and just three walks while holding opponents to a .111 batting average in 17.0 innings of work. For the season, he is averaging 13.2 strikeouts per nine innings and has a 6-to-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio with 60 punches and 10 free passes to go along with a team-leading 1.54 ERA.

With 14 strikeouts on Friday, Morgan now has 227 Ks for his career, which is just 12 shy of cracking Tulane's Top 10 listing.

Morgan and the Green Wave return to action on Tuesday, March 20, when they travel across town to play game two of the WOW Café & Wingery Cup series against UNO at Maestri Field. The contest will be televised live on Cox 10 and aired on tape-delay on Cox Sports Television (local channel 37) on Tuesday at 9:30 p.m. and again on Wednesday at 2:30 p.m.

Following Tuesday's showdown with UNO, the Green Wave will open Conference USA play next weekend with a three-game slate against Marshall in Charleston, W.Va. Tulane's next home game will be Tuesday, March 27, when the Green Wave play host to Nicholls State at 6:30 p.m. at Zephyr Field. For ticket information, contact the Tulane Athletics Ticket Office at 504-861-WAVE.