Baseball
Final Weekend on the Diamond Looms Large for Tulane Baseball
Tulane Can Lock Up a Bid to the C-USA Tournament with a Sweep of UCF this Weekend
 
Nick Boullosa Was the #1 Play on ESPN's "Top Plays" for his Diving Catch Versus LSU on Tuesday
 
Nick Boullosa Was the #1 Play on ESPN's "Top Plays" for his Diving Catch Versus LSU on Tuesday
  
 

May 19, 2010

5/20/2010 - 5/22/2010
UCF Knights at Tulane Green Wave
First Pitch: 6:00 p.m. (Thur.), 6:30 p.m. (Fri.), 1:00 (Sat.)
Stadium: Greer Field Turchin Stadium
Series: Tulane Leads the Series 10-8
Tickets: Call the Tulane Box Office at (504) 861-WAVE
Special Promotions: Thursday - Midweek $5.00 Tickets; Saturday: Senior Day (Preston Claiborne and Matt Petiton)

Looking at the Green Wave
A big midweek win over intra-state rival LSU and that momentum will hopefully propel the Tulane baseball team into their weekend series with UCF. The Green Wave enters the weekend needing a few wins to clinch a spot in the upcoming Conference USA Tournament.

Tulane grabbed a 9-1 victory over the Tigers on Tuesday night at Greer Field at Turchin Stadium. As a team, TU hit three home runs - coming from Brennan Middleton, Matt Ryan and Gunner Wright - and got 5.1 scoreless innings from Kyle McKenzie in his third start of the season. Ryan also scored four runs, walked, singled and tripled to pace the offense.

Matt Ryan had a good night at the plate versus the Tigers on Tuesday, going three-for-four with a single, triple and home run. He walked, scored four times and drove in an RBI. He also played an errorless first base to help TU collect the win. Ryan has scored four runs in two of the last three games and tied his season-high for hits in a game. He also hit his first home run since March 9 against New Orleans.

Middleton has been playing solid brand of baseball over the past ten games, batting .361 with two home runs. He has also doubled four times, scored seven runs and leads the team with 15 RBI during that span. The rookie is reaching base at a .415 clip and has recorded 21 assists and nine putouts during that time, while being involved in five double plays.

 

 

Middleton and Jeremy Schaffer each extended their hitting streaks to nine games on Tuesday, while Garrett Cannizaro and Wright will both enter the weekend on a seven-game hitting streak. There will be seven total players entering the weekend with a hitting streak.

Blake Crohan drove in the game winning run for the sixth time this season to lead the team. Schaffer has five game winning hits this season and Cannizaro has four to lead the squad. This season, 11 different players have plated the game winning run, with seven of them doing it multiple times.

Tulane can secure a trip to the Conference USA Tournament with a sweep of the Knight this weekend. If Tulane wins two of three games, they will need help from either Houston or Rice.

Looking at the Knights
UCF can also play their way into the C-USA Tournament with a sweep of the Green Wave. The Knights enter with a 31-21 overall record, but are just 8-13 in conference play.

Chris Duffy leads the league with a .436 batting average and has a team-best 18 home runs. Shane Brown is also batting over .400, entering the weekend with a .423 batting average, while eight of their nine every day starters hold averages of over .300.

On the mound, the pitching staff owns a 5.87 ERA. No pitcher will enter the weekend with an ERA of under 4.00, while just four of the 16 players that have logged innings this season own an opposing batting average of under .300.

Inside the Series
Tulane and UCF have met 18 times in the history of the series, with each team holding the edge on their home fields. Tulane leads the all-time series 10-8, and picked up three wins in four meetings last season. Tulane won at UCF for the first time last season, dropping their first six games in Orlando, to take the overall series edge.

At home, Tulane is 7-2 overall, winning a pair of games in 1990 and then taking two-of-three games in 2006 and 2008. At UCF, Tulane lost two games in 1989 and dropped all three games in 2007 before winning the final two games last season. The Green Wave are 1-0 in neutral site meetings, that coming last season in the C-USA Tournament. TU has won six of the last eight meetings in the series and are 8-6 in C-USA games versus the Knights.

--TulaneGreenWave.com--

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