I have an interview with Fritz at 3:30 to preview spring practice.

Anyone have suggestions for questions?

Spring football will be starting next week. What can we learn?

Roster- By my count we have 87 players on scholarship at this point. That means at least two must be shed by the fall. Any indications about who they are? Does their departure change our depth chart in any significant manner? Does it change our priorities for 2019 recruiting?

Injuries- How is the team’s health? Are any players missing spring practice due to injury? Are any of their injuries significant enough to jeopardize their upcoming season? Their careers?

Conditioning- We’ve talked a great deal about weight training in the last couple of months. How does the team look? What about the players like Braynon Edwards and Devon Johnson who have had trouble making “weight?” Have they shown the discipline to get into shape? What about the newcomers like Jeff Johnson and Davon Wright, both of whom could probably lose a few pounds as they continue to work out? We’re really depending on these kids; how do they look?

Team Speed- Despite the speed shown by Nickerson and Aruna at the NFL combine, we appeared slow last year at several positions, particularly at safety on defense. Speed isn’t the only factor, of course, and we need fast football players, not track guys who aren’t very good football players. But lack of speed is hard to overcome. Has our team speed improved? A few years ago, we had Badie, Doss, Allen, and Nixon who set school records as sprinters on the Tulane track team. Who are our fastest players now? I’d guess Glenn, Dauphine, and maybe Donnie Lewis or another defensive back or wide out. Can they run with the fastest players on other teams?

Defensive Alignment- Last year we lined up with three men down and a variety of players in “stand up” positions either on the end of the line or as linebackers. Quinlan Carroll was listed as the starting defensive end throughout the season but, in fact, he generally lined up in a stand up position I’d probably describe as a “rush linebacker,” though he had no sacks on the entire season. On the other side, Luke Jackson played a similar position, but it was described as a linebacker in the weekly “depth chart.” Interestingly, he led the team with 3.5 sacks (not many for the “leader”). With Marbley playing middle linebacker, Harris also played on the outside (again, no sacks). We’ve added a lot of interior linemen this year so does that indicate a change back to a four man line? Will we learn anything during the spring? I think our lack of pressure on opposing QB’s (14 total sacks) put a tremendous burden on our coverage downfield. What is being done to improve that shortfall?


Position Changes- Some Tulane fans have speculated that some of our more talented players with certain limitations at their current position might be moved to other spots on defense. Could some of our bigger defensive backs move to outside linebacker? Guys like Kuerschen, Teamer, Quentin Brown, and Sean Harper are all over 200# and with a little more weight might be better suited at linebacker. What about redshirt freshman, Tori Singletary. At 215# he’s significantly undersized for a defensive end. Would he be moved? Maybe spring can give some hints on who will be playing where in the fall.

Position Questions

QB: Unless he is injured, everyone expects Banks to take almost all of the snaps this year, so the only questions left open are his health and the maturity and capability of our other two scholarship QB’s, Ledford and Daniels. Ledford was moved to WR last year and returned to QB only after the wholesale defection of other options. Daniels, of course, is brand new. Both players are very athletic but wearing a red jersey and not subject to any tackling, it will be hard to tell much about their running ability this spring. But, how comfortable do they look? How is their passing?

OL: We return six of our top 8 linemen from last year but lose an important cog in center, Raul Diaz. Who is working out at center? Have they overcome the problems with snapping we saw last spring and fall? Where is Bailey Granier practicing? If LeGlue is forced to move to center, can Granier handle right tackle? We never really settled on a left tackle last year. Can LeGlue, Granier, or one of the redshirt freshman prove an upgrade there? At least to me, Briggs was a disappointment at right guard last season. Adequate I suppose, but is this a place where Granier or an incoming freshman (won’t know ‘till fall) can help?

RB: We lost Hilliard and Badie from last year but return a big back (Bradwell), a speed back (Dauphine), and an all-around back (Huderson) who are expected to carry the bulk of our rushing load this season. Dauphine apparently impressed everyone last fall sitting out as a transfer. Is he the “real deal?” And is he wholly recovered from injuries that slowed him last fall? Bradwell, with a year under his belt should be a load but without tackling, we probably won’t learn much about him this spring. And, Huderson, who appeared a little hesitant to me in limited action needs to step up. How does he look? And what about Strickland, the oft-injured back about whom little is known? And, of course, Glenn has apparently returned to the backfield from wide receiver. He’s been a valuable special teams guy but can we learn anything this spring about his potential to contribute on offense.

TE: Jones and Ardoin are known quantities who return and who have improved over their time at Tulane. William Wallace, a redshirt freshman, was one of our most highly regarded recruits a year ago. Does he look ready to make a contribution? Is Hicks still at TE or has he moved back to WR? Can he contribute or is this his last year?

WR: We return our top four wide receivers from a year ago plus two sophomores who lettered on special teams and the huge (6’5”) Kevin LeDee who redshirted. I’m really interested in LeDee this spring. How does he look? That size would be a huge advantage downfield and around the end zone. Can he contribute? We’ve got some talented freshmen coming in August; current roster guys need to make their mark now.

Special Teams: An obvious disappointment for several years, we probably won’t know a whole lot until the fall. Nonetheless, it should be interesting to see how the Neenan/Glover competition is going prior to the arrival of Stockwell in the fall. We need someone who is deadly inside the 40 and capable out to 55 yards. Do we have that guy? We haven’t since Santos left. As for punting, we know what we have in Block. He has the leg and can boot it plenty far but he has had the tendency to misfire at the most inappropriate moments. We need more consistency in our punting. Again, until Wright arrives in the fall, we probably won’t know where we stand.

Defensive Line- The graduation of Aruna, Wilson, and Washington has left many Tulane fans very concerned about our defensive line that has only Kennedy, Edwards, and Woullard as multi-letter returnees. But the performance of Sample and Patrick Johnson as true freshmen and the signing of six highly talented high-schoolers has improved the outlook somewhat. Lots of questions, however. How do the returning seniors look? What about the two big freshmen? Are they competing for time already? What about DeAndre Williams, Kubiet and Michael Scott? Can they join the rotation this fall? Again, now is the time for current roster guys to establish themselves.

Linebackers- Zach Harris our only truly experience linebacker coming back and he’s suffered more than his share of injuries. Lawrence Graham and Larry Bryant haven’t played much on defense but have experience on special teams. They need to step up. How do they look? What about Moody and the redshirt freshman, Vault? Until the freshmen, La’Dedrick Jackson and Keitha Jones, arrive on campus, we are dangerously thin at this position. Who looks ready to make a serious move for playing time?

Defensive Backs- Two of our biggest losses from last year are clearly Nickerson and Franklin though we return five guys who started at least one game in our five-man nickel backfield. For the spring, I’m interested in who will replace Nickerson. Who is working at the nickel position owned by Franklin? Who are being worked at the two safety positions?

Anyway, like every season, we have many questions. Most won’t be answered until we take the field in regular season play. But, it would be nice to get some “hints” on how things are going during the spring.

Roll Wave!!!

Travis Jewett was very open about Tulane's problems, or more specifically, the inability to get the ball over the plate.

It was kind of the same story with guys not being able to get the ball over the plate. You had to use five pitchers in the eighth inning and could not get the third out.

"The thing is, I want to start with something good here. That's a good enough offensive performance to come out of here with a W. We knew they weren't going to fold. We had to respond, and we've shown the ability to do that now. That's a positive. It's going to help us going forward. I truly believe that.

"People might point at the fly ball to Spoon and the three-run lead in the eighth, but as I'm looking at my chart, it's an out and then another out (right after Witherspoon's two-base error) and it's all two outs. It's the freebies again. It's very frustrating. It is. I don't really have to say too much about it. It's the elephant in the room now. I'm just trying to keep pushing buttons. We have to try to figure out maybe something from a routine standpoint in the bullpens. Elite defense is the ability to move the ball from player to player with efficiency. Well, certainly pitching is part of defense, and him grabbing the ball and throwing it to the catcher efficiently, that would be good defense. That's not happening right now. I think we need to work on our aiming, our ability to locate and do some things like that.

"I tell the kids all the time, if you keep doing what you're doing, you're going to keep getting what you're getting, and right now I don't like the taste of it and I know they don't either. And everybody's frustrated, but we have to keep coming. There's just nothing else we can do. I'm trying to remain positive because hopefully they're looking at me as the leader and saying he's remaining consistent and he's urging our successes. We're just going to have to figure it out somehow, some way before this thing gets too far out of hand."

What happened to Solesky? That was a different issue. It wasn't getting the ball over the plate. He was cruising with seven straight outs and then suddenly he couldn't get anyone out, and they were pretty much all hard hits.

"I wish I had the answer. He looks like he's probably going to run us into the seventh, then all of a sudden, I don't know if he was missing his pitches over the big part of the plate. I haven't seen the video yet, but I'll go back and watch it. It's just got away from him, so what I needed to do was get somebody else in there. I brought Ben (White) in in a tough situation, but I was thinking he was going to throw strikes and give us a chance to keep it there. He had that one (rough) inning but he settled down a little bit and gave us a chance. It's disappointing."

Everybody had a hit except for Witherspoon, and he walked twice. How hard is it to stomach a loss when you have that kind of production up and down the lineup?

"Like I said, anytime you hold somebody to seven hits and get 12 runs yourself, that should be a win, but sometimes this game doesn't always treat your fairly. It's kind of a cruel game at times. Right now we're getting punched all over the body and it's starting to get on the jaw. We just have to stay on our feet. We have to. We just have to stay on our feet. I told the kids today, we were 6-6 coming into tonight. Easily we could be 9-3, but if we weren't good enough, we could easily be 3-9, too. So there are some positives to some of those wins along the way against a tough schedule. I'm going to try to keep them motivated. I'm going to try to keep them believing because if we jump ship, that's not going to do us any good. It's a long season ahead. The league (schedule) isn't even close to approaching. We just have to figure this thing out here in the next couple of weeks and get going.

"Playing the five-game weeks at this point, not that they're bad, but we don't have any training opportunities, and we've got to have pitchers on call. They could touch the ball and do things like that, but we've got to have them ready. It is what is is. It's college baseball. You try to jam 56 games in there. We've got three more this week and two more next week and then three on the backside of that, so it's not going to get any different. Like I told you earlier, if we want different, which we do, then we're going to have to do something different."

Did you emphasize the positives in your post-game talk with the players?

"No question. The kids all know what happened in the game. They were here watching. For me to really try to say anything other than the truth, they know. What I wanted to tell them was that last inning, the balloon could be popped no problem. We got the first two guys out, and then I told (Jonathon) Artigues afterward, what a huge at-bat (he walked on a full count) because you're down 2 and you fight and you battle and you spoil some pitches and the next thing you know, you draw a walk, and that gets the best player on our team up at the plate with the tying run at the plate, so that was good, and then Spoon didn't get a hit tonight, but he's taking his walks. That's a sign of a great hitter--a guy that can hit for a high average, has power in his bat but will stand up there and let you walk him. And he did just that.

"We had guys on first and second with two outs and Ty Johnson's up at the plate. They are basically giving us the steal so we get them moving, and if that ball (Johnson singled) is just a little bit to the right of that gap, two guys are moving and we've got a chance to tie it (Grant Mathews flied to center with Witherspoon on third representing the tying run), so it's close. And geez, how many balls have we hit hard that don't hit the outfield grass. It's been happening to us quite a bit. I'm not saying we're snake-bitten, but I don't want the kids to lose the faith in their swings. Those balls will fall. I thought Grant's swing there at the end, it's a ball right on the barrel, but he got it up. The night wasn't really in our favor to hit the balls in the air (no wind), but I thought he hit it well."

How important will it be for Kaleb Roper to set the right tone on Friday? You didn't like what you saw from him last Friday, but that was uncharacteristic.

"Very uncharacteristic. I wish I could turn the clock forward to Friday right now because one, I want to get out here with the kids. I was thinking about taking tomorrow off, but I told them no way, not because I'm going to do anything crazy or stupid, but I want to be together. I just want to be out here together because we've got to stay connected in this thing. If we fracture, it could go fast, but that's not going to happen. I'm not going to let that happen. I don't know if I can coach, but I'm not going to let these guys move apart from each other. We'll just get together quickly tomorrow and move around a little bit. I'm super-excited to see (Roper) respond. Life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you respond to it. He was just a little bit not himself (last Friday), and I think he learned from it, and I'm excited to see him go out and have a good outing against a good team."

Massey faced one batter in the eighth. Will he start Saturday?

"He will still start on Saturday. Yes. We'll keep our same rotation. It was his bullpen night. I talked to him this morning, and he was a good teammate. He was willing to maybe take his bullpen and take it the mound. I didn't take him out because he walked a guy in front of him. I took him out because the splits say so. The hitter was hitting a hundred points higher against left-handers than he was right- handers. It was just a complete statistical analysis of splits. I just told him it wasn't because I didn't think he could get him out. It's just the book said to do it. He'll be rocked and loaded to go. He didn't throw too many pitches, so he should be good to go."

It is hard to gauge what the Tulane baseball team will do this year, although the eye test has been positive and this team clearly enjoys playing more than last year's, which went through the motions for stretches.

But if Tulane is going to reach a regional, this week is the time to step up and go 4-1 after a mixed bag in the first three weeks. The Green Wave cannot afford to lose to UNO, which should be down from the last two years (although it has a sensational Friday starter), when it beat Tulane at Maestri Field.

Southeastern will be tough as always, but the game is at home and Tulane and weekend quality starter Chase Solesky will be on the mound.

Purdue, Tulane's weekend opponent at Turchin Stadium, is ranked 9th nationally in RPI, which means nothing at this point but does probably mean the Boilermakers are much better than they have been in the past (they went 10-44 two years ago). Breaking down their 8-2 start, it's hard to see where the good RPI comes from. They split two close games with Notre Dame, which won a series at LSU to start the year, got hammered by a regional quality Stetson team and have played no one else that really ever makes the postseason often.

The bottom line is good teams should win a series against Purdue at home. It will be very interesting to see how Roper bounces back Friday. Jewett was not happy with his uncharacteristic negative demeanor against Fullerton, when he was upset at himself after every missed pitch and appeared to lose his focus, but he added he had never seen that from Roper before. Massey needs to pitch better, too. I have not seen one pitch from his last two games, but he has been ineffective both times. Gillies looked really good on Sunday, but Fullerton's coach, a straight shooter with strong opinions, was less impressed, as you'll see if you scroll down.

I have been very encouraged by Tulane's approach at the plate. Nobody can break it down better there than WaveOn in the other thread. Obviously the pitching needed to be vastly improved this year for the Wave to have a chance, but my biggest concern was an anemic lineup incapable of producing anything against decent pitches. That concern has been allayed, at least so far.

Here is what Fullerton coach Rick Vanderhook said after Sunday's game.

How disappointed are you in having seven guys caught for missing curfew last night?

"Rules are rules. I'm not going to bend the rule just to win a game. We play in Hawaii, and Hawaii's a pretty cool place if you've ever been there. Las Vegas is pretty sweet. They had a good amount of time (to explore New Orleans without breaking curfew), and they didn't get in on time. It just so happens that I was the one checking. That's probably the worst thing it could be for them. We had a pitcher in right field, and at the end of the game he played at first base and he got a base hit. He had a good day, and then we had to make some moves because the other guys who play were too scared to play a new position and didn't know what to do, so I guess they've never watched baseball before."

Why did you have the suspended players sit together at the top of the bleachers by the right field wall?

"I wanted them to be fully embarrassed. I should have put them right in the middle like over here somewhere, but they got the gist of it. They are in the football stadium running right now."

What is your impression of Tulane?

"They are physical. They have a physical, athletic team. Witherspoon didn't kill us. That dude's going to kill some people. The leadoff hitter is solid. Travis (Jewett) said last year he played catcher, and he can hit. They can hit and they can run. This turf probably plays pretty good for them. Grass is probably a little bit different, but I like the club on the field a lot."

What did you think of Gillies?

"I thought he was OK. He got to pitch against a little lesser of a lineup, so that was good (for him). He threw strikes and he could spin the ball in the count early over the plate, which he did. That team's going to play in June, at least in my eyes. They are as good as Houston, which we played last week. They are similar to Stanford in the field. They are more physical than UCLA. They have good pitching, although they don't have the (same) starting pitching (as UCLA)."

What do you mean by physical?

"They are strong. They hit the ball hard and have authority to it. They can really bust the gaps well."

Well, it started off well with the two wins against Lamar. But then, Fullerton came in to continue their mastery over the Wave. Since home game wins only count 0.7 for RPI purposes and losses count 1.3, we needed to go 4-1 (2.8-1.3) to have a good week. Going 3-2, while not a disaster by any means, resulted, for RPI purposes, in a 2.1-2.7 for the week. While RPI is meaningless at this point of the season, that record will remain all year.

Hitting. For the week, we hit .309 (.344 against Lamar and .307 against Fullerton) which, of course, is very good and brings our season-long average up to .271. We’re still striking out too much (88 times in 94 1/3 innings), roughly 8.4 times per 9 innings, but that is about one strike out per game better than last year. And we’re still getting to a two strike count more than I’d like to see (54% for the week/53% for the year), but we’re guarding the plate better. For the week, we hit .212 with 2-strikes, bringing our season-long average up to .182, which is much better than we’ve done in recent years (best being .155 in 2015). We attacked the first strike a little better also, hitting .395 for the week putting the first strike into play (.363 for the year). I’ve followed both of these statistics closely over the years and think they can tell a great deal about a team’s approach at the plate. If you’re putting too many first strikes into play you’re probably swinging at too many “pitcher’s pitches;” too few, and you’re not taking advantage of the pitcher’s effort to get ahead in the count. 25% seems about right. We’re at 24.1% this year while last year, when we hit .413 on the first strike, we were at 25.1%. If you get to 2-strikes too often, you’re probably not being aggressive enough early in the count. Anyway…

For the year, the front end of our order, Artigues (.316), Witherspoon (.333) and Ty Johnson (.326) are really getting it done. Jensen, while hitting only .205, has been hitting the ball well and probably has had the worst luck on the team at bat. Rowland is up to .256 and Hoese (.333) and Gozzo (.286) are probably hitting better than expected; they need to keep it up. Mathews has also gotten additional playing time lately and is 5 for 15 (.333) with 5 RBI’s. Our biggest problem on offense is Acy Owen’s lack of hitting (.214), and going 0 for his last 17. With Kobi Owen out for the year, we need Ty Johnson to concentrate on the outfield and not become our every-day catcher. Right now, only Witherspoon is a “sure” starter in the outfield, though Mathews hitting of late has gotten him a look. Although he didn’t play poorly on Sunday, I still don’t feel comfortable with Rowland in left field. As a group, Heinrich, Glancy, Bedgood, and Sepcich are hitting .185 (5 for 27). If someone doesn’t step up, I wouldn’t be surprised if Artigues (our super utility man) doesn’t end up in left field with Galy taking over at 2nd base. Galy’s 2 for 5 at bat, so that’s not enough to make any judgement, but he’s excellent defensively.

Fielding. Speaking of defense, it’s hard to complain about a .983 fielding average, though our pitchers as a group are fielding .761 with 5 of our 7 errors on the season. Johnson’s wild throw on a base stealing attempt and Jenson’s fumble of a short toss from Massey at first base are our only other official miscues. We’ve certainly made a few “unscored errors” but also some terrific plays. Mathews’s “heads up” grab of the foul pop up muffed by Trent Johnson against Fullerton was only one of three similar plays (the others being in the outfield) that I’ve witnessed in over 60 years of playing and watching baseball. Both Gozzo and Hoese have also made some terrific plays and we’ve made the routine consistently.

Pitching. Our pitching, on the other hand, has been anything but consistent. This week, arguably two of our best pitchers (Roper and McAffer) had horrible outings that put us down big in the first game against Fullerton, and blew a 1 run lead in the 9th inning of the second game. Otherwise the pitching this week was quite good overall. We got good starts against Lamar from Bates and Solesky. Of course, Lamar is a weak hitting team (they did get “no-hit” and “1-hit” in back to back games) and are batting .211 as a team through their season thusfar. On Saturday, Massey had a so-so outing and Gillies was superb on Sunday. Bjorngjeld was excellent for the 7th straight appearance this year and White, Trent Johnson, Green, and Campbell threw a combined 12 innings for 2 earned runs over the week—really encouraging. Unfortunately, Pellerin, Celluci, and Price were roughed up rather badly by Fullerton, allowing 6 hits and 4 earned runs in 1 1/3 innings. But, other than Roper and McAffer’s performance against Fullerton, our staff allowed only 11 earned runs in 43 2/3 innings (2.28 ERA) this week. Again, I find that encouraging. We’ll see if that continues as we go into another five game week.

On a side note: I notice arguments on other Tulane sites regarding Sunday’s game in which seven Fullerton players were suspended. Some suggest this somehow diminishes our win on Sunday and I understand that argument. But, to take a closer look, the three “starters” who sat out the game had a combined .245 batting average for the year. Their three “replacements” went 3 for 10 (.300) in the game so I’m not exactly sure how much was lost by benching the starters. On the mound Sunday, with no midweek games this week, Fullerton threw three of their top seven pitchers based on innings pitched, including three of the five pitchers who have started games for them this year. The other two started Friday and Saturday against us. I’m not sure who exactly got benched who they would have used in place of the guys we hammered but, who knows? And, as for the claim that a bunch of pitchers had to take the field, it is true they ran some pitchers out late in the game but the only one who started the game out of position was Conine, their closer; and he got a base hit. Obviously, with the game out of hand, he was never going to pitch anyway. So, those are the facts as the game unfolded. Let anyone judge how “depleted’ the Fullerton line up actually was. Their web site acts like it was all the difference.

On to next week.

Roll Wave!!!

I did not go to the second one yesterday, but I was there for the first one and saw all I needed to see to know Tulane would win again. Lamar just can't hit, and Tulane appears to have the best pitching depth I've seen since returning to New Orleans in 2008. Don't misunderstand me. It's too early to know how many of the Wave's arms will be good against good competition, but the number of pitchers who conceivably could get the job done is in double digits.

Here's what Travis Jewett, Grant Witherspoon and Josh Bates had to say after Tuesday's win.

Witherspoon, by the way, is a totally different person in interviews than he was the past two years. He was quiet and borderline uncomfortable when talking to reporters as a freshman and sophomore, but this year he has been the best quote I've covered in seven years of writing about this team. Colorful, insightful and interesting.

WITHERSPOON

You've had seven hits in the last two games, including four against Lamar. How were you seeing it tonight?

"A lot better. I feel like I was overswinging a little bit, getting a little too comfortable and trying to pull the ball over the fence a bit too much, but yesterday I worked on some stuff in the cage, kind of calmed it down a bit and am getting back to my old self."

The triple was to the deepest part of the ballpark.

"Yeah, it was a fastball right down the middle. It felt good. I wish it would have gone over, but I've got to get in the weight room I guess. I saw it well today."

After getting swept by a really good team in Ole Miss, how important was it to come right back and get a win?

"It was real important. They are a good team. Those (Ole Miss) are the kinds of teams we're going to have to be playing when we're in a regional. They had a good staff and a good lineup. We're going to get there, but we weren't there last weekend. You've got to take it as it is and come out with a good effort. We got a good start from Josh Bates today. That helped us out a lot."

There were some early struggles with runners in scoring position, but Bates made that issue irrelevant with his pitching.

"He was awesome. There was never a doubt. He was putting everything where he wanted--slider, fastball. I felt real comfortable in the outfield. I didn't have much action out there. He did a great job for his first start. It was awesome for him."

BATES

You gave up zero hits in five innings. How did you feel out there?

"I felt pretty confident. I wasn't really looking at the scoreboard. I just knew my defense was behind him and I was letting my defense work."

How happy were you when you learned you would start tonight? You hadn't pitched since going one-third of an inning in the opener.

"I was pretty pumped up. Obviously before the game I had a few jitters. I'm sure that's normal, but I was pretty confident because I knew these guys had my back."

Did you feel like you were in as much control as it looked like?

"Yeah, I had good control of all my pitches. I felt like I was making some good pitches. Some got away from me, but I was able to have control on my off speeds and my fastball."

There's a lot of competition on the mound. Does that put extra pressure on you to perform well when you get the opportunity?

"No, not really. I wouldn't say it puts pressure on me. I know that we have some depth, and it's good that we have depth. I'm just doing what I have to do."

JEWETT

What did you think about Josh Bates? Lamar is struggling at the plate, but you had to like what you saw.

"No question. We talk about it all the time, that brown circle in the middle of the field is the tone setter. We felt good about him coming into this one. He did just what we recruited. He's had a lot of high school success. He pitched in a really good summer program, so we knew he was capable. It was him time, his turn, and I was just proud of him. He went out there and more than anything just grabbed the ball and attacked (catcher) Acy (Owen's) glove. We're like 980-something in the fielding percentage. We're playing really good ground ball defense and we're covering in the outfield. It should give those guys a lot of confidence to put the ball over the plate because we'll have a chance to catch it. He was composed. He showed some emotion in a good way. He got some excitement in the big moments, which I like to see out of the kid. He's been working hard, and I'm glad that his hard work showed up for tonight."

You still haven't had an error by anyone other than a pitcher or catcher (that's still true after Wednesday). How nice is that?

"It's really good. You call the infield your front line of defense, and right now I feel like if it's hit on the ground somewhere, there is going to be a play made by everybody. We have a little bit of a luxury,. too. Right now we're playing Trevor Jensen at first base, and he was a junior college shortstop. We've got a bunch of good infielders on the field right now, and they're securing the ball well. We've got Spoonie out in center kind of quarterbacking the whole thing. He's moving everybody around well and taking charge out there. The guys out just in good spots and it's being caught. It should give our pitchers a lot of confidence We don't have to be afraid of the bat. We can have the ball hit the bat, so to speak. Now we want to stay off the trampoline part of it, but if you can get inside of it and outside of it, we're going to make some plays. We are just trying to stress to those guys that that's important. We saw a little better tonight."

Witherspoon said he wasn't happy with his swing in the Ole Miss series. and he had three hits Sunday. I guess he was right because he had four hits tonight. What was he talking about?

"He just talked to me a little bit about where his hands were--kind of the position. He was not really happy with where they were. He went back and saw some video of what it was like when he felt good. That's just a smart player that has a lot of investment in his success. He's going to keep working at it until he feels good. He was great tonight. I know the four hits, but it starts off with just the ability to be a complete hitter. It's two strikes and he's driving the ball the other way. He's running really well. He's taking two bases on the base paths. He's just doing good. It's important to him. If you want to be a good hitter, you have to hit a lot, and that's what he does. He understands his swing and he knows what he has to do to feel right. I'm happy for his success tonight."

Early on you really struggled with runners in scoring position. It didn't matter because of Bates, but is that a concern?

"We might have had a little bit of that problem throughout (the year) to be honest with you, to be honest with you, but I'm not going to call it a problem right now. I'm looking at it more fin a positive light. I told them you could look at the other day we left 10 on base. You can look at 10 on base or you could say, we had 10 guys on base. There's some positives to it, too. You talk about hitting and round ball and round bat and if you're always worried about the seven failures and not the three successes, then you start spinning your mind. I choose to think of it the other way, and I want the kids to know that it's seven games into the season. We're still working on our timing. We're still working on our swings. We're working on different arm angles, seeing different spin. Just the fact that we can threaten people and put people on base, we're good enough, we'll drive those runs in, we'll put balls in play better.

"I was real proud of Ty Johnson tonight, too. He struggled a little bit early, but then we kind of talked about some things and some locations and some heights, and boom his next at-bat, he did exactly what he went up there thinking to do. That's just adjustability. I do like the fact they are in scoring position, and in due time we'll get those in more than we want."

Tough break with Kobi Owen. What happened to him in warm-ups in Oxford?

"It was the last throw in from the outfield on Sunday at Ole Miss during infield-outfield. He just felt a little something in his elbow, and the picture reaffirmed what he might have thought. It's disappointing. Kobi's such a great spirit. He's a great kid. He's got some teeth for days. He smiles, and I love his spirit. I'm hoping that he can stay engaged with the team because he'll need us and we certainly need him around. The mature decision was to get it fixed and be at full strength for fall ball next year so he can be at full strength. We certainly miss him. Like I told the guys, we'll be there for him, but there has to be a next man up. The Heinrichs, the Sepcichs, we have some thoughts about playing Glancy and Mathews and some of those types of guys in certain situations. As a coach I need a little bit of feet there or trust, reps, things like that. I've got to try to find some ways to get some guys out there. We do have some pieces. We'll try to mix and match for a while and just see what hits."

Tulane offered Converse-Judson athlete Rashad Wisdom earlier today. He would be a sure-fire four-star prospect if he was just a little bit taller, but he is a stout RB/S prospect that I really enjoy watching play. He'll be at our camp in Houston here in a couple of weeks, so I'm looking forward to checking in with him now with spring underway.

Is Kobi Owen injured? After startig the first four games, he was replaced on Saturday when we resumed game #1 of the series and didn't play in games #2 or #3, while we tried several unsuccessful "mixes" in the outfield and as pinch hitters. He'd struck out six times in 14 at bats which is a lot, but had shown some "pop" with two doubles. Just wondering.

Roll Wave!!!

Not much joy this weekend as we were outplayed by Ole Miss in every facet of the game. We only hit .210 in the three games at Oxford, dropping our overall batting average for the brief season to .235. We also struck out 27 times in the 27 innings, which was reminiscent of last year. Worse, over half our at bats resulted in a 2 strike count. And, after a weekend of guarding the plate with 2 strikes exceptionally well, we fanned 51% of the time with that count in Mississippi. And, we only went 5 for 53 (.094) with 2 strikes.

Only 23 times all weekend in 100 official at bats did we put the ball in play on the first strike thrown. But, like all previous years, it was our best chance to get a hit. We went 9 for 23 (.391) in those at bats. We shouldn’t swing at balls or “unhittable” pitches early in the count, but we must attack a “hitter’s pitch” every time we see one. Getting behind in the count and reaching a 2-strike count simply doesn’t work at the plate. Of course, individual batting averages don’t mean too much this early in the season. A hard line drive that is caught by a spectacular defensive play or a checked swing blooper that falls in can alter an average by 50 or more points. Still, Witherspoon’s .318 and Artigues’s .375 are good. At the other end, Acy Owen’s .167 isn’t. All the other starters are hitting in the low to mid-.200’s at this point. I think we’ve faced pretty good pitching so far so maybe that’s part of the problem. Regardless, we need to do better.

In the field, I didn’t think we had a very good weekend. We were only charged with three errors, two by pitchers and Johnson’s errant throw into center field on a stolen base attempt, but we didn’t make the plays we made the previous weekend at home. Ole Miss did. Witherspoon made a tremendous effort after a long run to get a glove on a long fly ball to the fence in left-center only to drop it. I agree with the official scorer’s decision to call it a double rather than an error but it was the kind of play Ole Miss outfielders made 3 or 4 times; we didn’t. Rowland also misplayed a wind-blown fly ball near the wall that he had plenty of time to camp under but failed to catch. Later in the same inning he looked very unsure on a short fly ball that he eventually corralled but was unable to get a throw off to stop a runner from tagging up and scoring from third. I would expect a better outfielder to have thrown out the runner and Rowland didn’t even get a throw off. I imagine his outfield days are behind him. We’ll see. Unfortunately, when Trevor Jensen was inserted in left field for game #3, he didn’t prove much better. On a single straight at him, he did a good job of charging the ball and fielding it in short left field with a runner still a stride or two from third base but heading for home. Jensen’s throw was very weak and up the line allowing the runner to score. Again, that shouldn’t happen. A good, strong throw would have nailed that runner 10-15 feet from the plate. Anyway, not good. The infield played well enough though Artigues kicked a double-play grounder that was ruled a hit (I’d have called it an error) and booted a line drive off the heal of his glove (also ruled a hit). Galy is clearly the better defensive player but if Artigues continues to hit, we’ll need his bat. He’s got the chance to play a lot of ball if he can clean up some of his defensive miscues.

On the mound, we continued to have control difficulties as a team, but we "only" issued 5.6 free passes (walks and HBP) per 9 innings thanks to walking only two on Sunday. And, for the season, opponents are only hitting .243, so that, too, is pretty good. For the weekend, our three starting pitchers threw a combined 15 innings, allowed 11 hits, 8 free passes and 8 earned runs (4.80 ERA). I still don’t understand how the second run against Roper was counted as “earned,” however. Fortes was on second with one out and advanced to third on a passed ball. He then scored on a ground out that would have only moved him to third without the passed ball. The next batter grounded out and Fortes never would have scored. Whatever. I still thought Roper looked good and so did Massey for three innings. Then, he seemed to get tired, or at least started to get the ball up in the strike zone. He doesn’t look like his freshman year, but a whole lot better than last season. Gillies looked better than I’ve ever seen him, so that is also encouraging.

Our relief pitching really let us down, something many thought wouldn’t happen with what was believed to be a deeper staff. Regardless, in 9 innings, they allowed 14 hits, issued 8 “free passes” and allowed 10 earned runs (10.00 ERA); none of that is good or even acceptable. White and McAffer had the most trouble while Bjorngjeld and Issa looked the best to me. Others pitched short periods and generally not that effective.

I also liked how Jewett managed the weekend, which might surprise some. He made some smart adjustments in the line-up and kept trying to find a “winning” combination in the outfield, though without much success. I thought he kept with and relieved pitchers at appropriate times but was not rewarded with the kind of performance he needed out of his relievers. He also gave some reserves a chance to prove themselves in the second game at bat. Unfortunately, none of them did.

All in all, it was a very bad weekend, but no more or less important that our opening week. It will be interesting to see who pitches against Lamar in our mid-week games since I’d think Roper, Massey, and Gillies are set for now as weekend starters.

Roll Wave!!!

Did I miss something on this? What happened with Fritz’ extension?

Sam Saxton - son of former Texas quarterback Jim Saxton, is starting to catch a lot of interest this spring. He has a couple of offers already, but should probably end the summer with good number of them. He's a legit 6'5" and throws a nice clean ball. He'll be at our Rivals camp in Houston here in a few weeks where I'll be able to take a more critical look at him. But good for the staff to come through with an offer now on him!

As anyone who watched last week could have predicted, Ross Massey will enter the rotation on Saturday in place of White, with Kaleb Roper remaining the Friday starter and Keagan Gillies getting another Sunday start.

That was exactly what I anticipated. Roper looked strong against Wright State, and Massey had the single best performance of the weekend in the last three innings of Saturday's game.

"He came in and for three innings limited them to nothing at a very important time," coach Travis Jewett said. "It was a high-pressure situation, and I thought he handled it well. I liked his composure. He was around the glove. Even the first batter that he walked, he was around it. He might even have struck him out if you want to ask for a little help. He didn’t let that fold him and for the next three innings he was on top of it.

"We think maybe him and a Roper 1-2, that could probably be a pretty good combination."

Although Gillies had a rocky first inning (which I did not see after they moved the start time up 30 minutes), he settled down nicely Sunday and pitched better than his poor numbers ( 4 runs in 4.2 innings, 4 hits, three walks, a hit batter and a wild pitch) indicated. He'll need to be sharper in Oxford, but he actually retired 11 out of 13 batters at one point after allowing the first four to reach base, getting four pop-ups caught by infielders, striking out a guy looking and getting a double-play grounder. That's more than enough to warrant another start.

Look for Ty Johnson to be the catcher on Friday, and if not then, definitely for one game this weekend. Friday makes the most sense because Ole Miss will throw sophomore lefty Ryan Rollison (five innings, one hit, 12 Ks in a win against Winthrop), and normal starting catcher Acy Owen is a left-handed batter.

Said Jewett: "We can’t make Acy catch them all, and Ty’s good, too, so we have to get him back there and continue to cross train him like we have been."

At some point soon, I will do some research to see if I can find any other catchers who have been the leadoff hitter in a lineup, as Johnson will be when he catches.

When Johnson is behind the plate, either Matt Rowland or Tyler Heinrichs will get the start in left field. Jewett told me after the series that was their biggest concern going forward--finding a fourth outfielder who could do the job defensively on the days when Johnson catches. That's another example of the night and day difference between this year and last, when the primary concern was whether anyone could get anyone out. Now it's finding a fourth outfielder. Huge advantage, 2018.

I believe the key this weekend will be not getting overmatched at the plate. Ole Miss's starters were dominant against Winthrop, with Saturday guy Brady Feigl, a junior right, allowing zero runs in six innings, and Sunday guy James McArthur, another junior righty, allowing one unearned run in five innings. The total for the three starters was 16 innings, zero earned runs and 25 Ks against the team picked to win the Big South conference by six of 10 coaches.

I love that Tulane is playing this series. We will know a lot more about this team by Sunday than we do now. I'm sure the Ole Miss fans will be stoked for revenge after watching the Wave eliminate the Rebels from the 2016 NCAA Oxford regional, and it will be interesting to see how the new-look team performs against top notch competition on the road. Massey had an outstanding outing against Utah in that same regional, allowing one run in eight innings, but Grant Witherspoon and Sam Bjorngjeld are the only other remaining significant contributor from that regional team. Bjorngjeld pitched in three of the four games, earning a (cheap) save by pitching a perfect ninth inning to preserve the 4-1 win against Utah.

We have arrived at that slow period between signing day(s) and spring practice...

Now that the dust has cleared, I thought I’d take a look at how recruiting went this year in the state of Louisiana. By my count, 91 kids signed BCS scholarship papers this year. That’s a little down from recent years and far below the 110 inked back in 2015, when Tulane was signing 15 kids as Johnson and Rollins enrolled, in my view, several FCS-level recruits.

This year, LSU was the leader with 13 signees from the state. Tulane and Louisiana Tech each signed 8 with ULM (6) and ULL (4) bringing up the rear. So 39 of the 91 BCS signees stayed “home” (42%). This percentage has been slowly going down from the over 50% it was a few years ago when P5 schools like Kansas and G5 schools like Colorado State and Ball State were rarely seen in the state. TCU with five and Mississippi State with 4 led the “out of state” schools in signatures. Arkansas and Kansas had three each.

The overall number could be down for a number of reasons. For example Idaho signed three Louisiana kids this year but they are returning in 2018 to FCS status. Possibly more important is the new 25 man limit making schools more wary of “marginal” students who might not be able to enroll but still count against their recruiting totals. Every year several highly regarded recruits fail to sign BCS-level contracts for one reason or another. This year at least ten consensus “three-star” kids have signed with no one in the BCS or even FCS ranks. That suggests to me they are at best marginal academic prospects, but that’s just a guess.

Generally speaking, I think the top 50 or so prospects from the state are P5 quality. Those are the ones we need and this year we got our share.

Roll Wave!!!

https://247sports.com/college/mississippi-state/Bolt/Mississippi-State-dismisses-Andy-Cannizaro-one-weekend-into-his-second-season-as-head-coach-115324429

"Inappropriate relations with a student"

Obviously, sweeping a three game series is a positive result, especially to start the season against what appears to be a solid ball club.

Wright State had several good looking pitchers but not enough depth to hold onto early leads. They battled throughout each game however and were fundamentally very sound in my view. Their defense committed only one error and made all the routine plays as well as several truly exceptional plays. They play smart baseball and have a history of winning. They’ve averaged over 40 wins a season for the past four including going 2-2 and losing in the finals of two NCAA regionals. They are favorites in their conference and have a chance for a very good season. I hope to meet them again at Turchin in a Super Regional. (Okay, that's probably unlikely)

In fact our future opponents had a very good weekend overall which is good for our eventual RPI. Our eight conference challengers went 16-8, which, since we play each of them three times, translates into a 48-24 (.667) record for them as opponents (50% of the RPI calculation). Teams on our OOC schedule, based on the weekend, will count as 50-37 (.575) towards the same calculation. That’s also very good. Now, about our own performance--

There certainly is a lot to like about our weekend. We fell behind in each game and came back to win, for one. When Wright scored, we almost always came back immediately with a score of our own. That’s excellent. We also played as fundamentally sound as I can ever remember from a Tulane team, even our World Series squads. We moved runners up, took advantage of pitchers whose slow deliveries allowed us to steal bases uncontested, and ran the bases without the foolish errors we’ve seen over the years. Except for the near collision between Owen and Witherspoon in the outfield on Sunday (and that worked out fine), we looked poised and confident in the field. Our only two errors were on failed pick-off attempts. Unfortunately, the camera angle on “All Access” didn’t allow me to analyze those problems.

At the plate there were also some positives. So far we’re making much better contact with two strikes than in recent years. We’re only striking out 6.4 times per 9 innings this season compared to 9.3 per 9 innings last. Last year, with 2 strikes on the batter, we struck out 54% of the time and hit only .142. In the previous two regional seasons, we struck out 51% and 49% of the time with 2-strikes and hit only .147 and .155 respectively. Through the first weekend, we’re only striking out 39% of the time with 2 strikes and hitting .217 with that count, which would probably be an all-time high if we could keep it up.

At the same time, we’re not taking advantage of pitches early in the count. Despite those who think we should intentionally get behind in the count by taking a strike, the first strike is the batter’s best chance to get a hit. Last year we hit .413 putting the first strike into play. The previous two years it was .382 and .355 respectively. In all four years (counting this one) we put the ball into play on the first strike roughly 26% of the time so we are neither no more, nor less, aggressive so far, but we’re only hitting .280 on that pitch. That’s a very small sample, of course, and I’m confident it will rise.

We’ve also stolen 7 bases in 8 tries so far with almost all of them coming at the expense of pitchers who allowed us running leads. I don’t see super speed on the team though a number of players run well. How much we run will be interesting as the year progresses. Wright State was successful on all four of their base stealing attempts, also, best I could tell, due to inattention or slow delivery on the part of our pitchers. Yet, this has been an area of concern to me going into the year. Acy Owen only threw out 4 of 33 runners who attempted to steal against him this past summer. Without knowing the circumstances, it’s hard to come to any conclusion, but that’s not a good statistic.

On the mound, we’re issuing far too many free passes. So far, in 28 innings we’ve issued 22 walks and HBPs (7.07 per 9 innings). In last year’s record-breaking season, we issued 6.64 per 9 innings. Yes, in this small sample, we’re doing even worse than last year despite all the talk and emphasis on getting the ball over the plate. In those 28 innings, we’ve walked or hit the lead-off man 7 times and he’s scored on four of those occasions. Three other times, free passes came around to score. That’s 7 runs. We also forced in two runs with a walk and a hit batsman with the bases loaded, though one of those had reached via walk. So, 8 of 13 runs allowed (61.5%) were a direct result of BB’s and HBP’s. That’s terrible and must be redressed.

Yet, on the good news side, we allowed 12 pitchers to gain some “real game” experience this weekend, some for the first time in Division 1 baseball. The results were clearly mixed, but as a group we held Wright State to a .208 batting average; that’s really good. The team ERA of 4.18 is less good but not too bad. Following a rough start, Kaleb Roper pitched extremely well and Ross Massey’s performance, following a walk to the first batter, was possibly the most encouraging development of the weekend. I also thought Sam Bjorngjeld’s outing was terrific. His curve ball to left-handed batters was unhittable; UNHITTABLE!! Several of the young guys showed terrific stuff but may have been nervous in their first appearance. I include Bates, Pellerin, and Celluci in that group. I thought McAffer looked good but his control was off and needs to improve as the year goes on. Again, early season nerves?

Conversely, White, Solesky, and Gillies were disappointing in my view. These are experienced guys who we need to pitch well. Finally, and most disappointing, was Trent Johnson. Based on his JC season and summer work, I expected him to be a solid weekend starter, if not our Friday night ace. Instead, he looked out of shape, overweight, and not ready for “prime time.” Two hits, a walk, a hit batsman, and a throwing error in 1/3 of an inning says it all. We need much more out of him. I hope he comes around.

At bat, obviously it’s still very early. I’ve covered some of the general stuff already and, as a team we’re hitting .260 with two HR’s during a weekend when the wind was blowing out. Everyone we’re really counting on got at least two hits over the weekend so no one is mired in a “deep slump.” Yet, Acy Owen, despite two really big hits, is batting .182. And both Matt Rowland and Trevor Jenson, again despite some clutch hitting, are also hitting below the “Mendoza line” (.167 and.154 respectively). Since they are batting #3 and #4 in our lineup, we need them up near or above .300. Gozzo, Ty Johnson, and Witherspoon had good weekends, all hitting over .300 while Kobi Owen and Hoese are in the .200s to start. The good news is that all of those guys have a chance to have good years and the first weekend didn’t spoil that opportunity.

I also thought Coach Jewett and staff did a good job all weekend of game management and keeping the players loose. Whatever problems there were last year don’t appear to be prevalent this season. Hope that continues.

Roll Wave!!!

Tulane matched its number of weekend sweeps from last year on opening weekend, coming from behind again to beat Wright State 11-5 after trailing 2-0 and 4-3.

It is too early to judge what will happen the rest of the way even though Wright State is coming off four excellent seasons in a row, returns the bulk of its roster and added an ace pitcher who missed all of 2017 with an injury. But almost all of the signs were positive this weekend as Tulane displayed resilience, scoring in the bottom half of the inning on six of the eight occasions Wright State scored in the top half, vastly improved pitching depth (of the 12 pitchers who played, only Saturday starter Ben White, Brendan Cellucci on Friday and Trent Johnson on Sunday really struggled) and much better pitch selection at the plate (striking out 18 times for the weekend after setting a team record in that category last season).

Even better was how good Ross Massey looked. It's impossible to overstate how much his disintegration last year hurt the team. Yes, it had all kinds of issues in the first year under Travis Jewett, but it is hard to be successful under any circumstance when one guys goes from 10-3 with a 2.29 ERA as a freshman to 0-8 with a 9.68 ERA. Massey was perfect after walking the first batter he faced in a three-inning stint, and he probably got squeezed on a 2-2 pitch before the walk. The consecutive outs he recorded were a foul to the catcher, a grounder to third, a grounder to short, a strikeout, a grounder to short, another grounder to short, an easy fly to center field, a strike out looking and another grounder to short. Very impressive.

After Sunday's victory, when Matt Rowland emerged from a two-and-half-game horror show at the plate to hit the decisive 3-run home run and followed with a two-RBI single, both with two outs, I talked to Grant Witherspoon, Rowland and pitcher Sam Bjorngjeld, who would have notched the win if baseball had sensible rules. Instead, Johnson got the victory for being on the mound when Wright State made its final out of the fifth inning (the only out he recorded) before Tulane went ahead in the bottom half. I thought the brief but ineffective rule could apply (Johnson retired only one of the five batters he faced before Bjorngjeld came in and retired six in a row, but I was overruled vociferously)

Tulane faces a very tough series at Ole Miss this weekend. The Rebels swept Big South favorite Winthrop at home, outscoring Winthrop 18-5, and are ranked 9th in the latest D1Baseball.com listing. Maybe Massey will replace White as the Saturday starter. Other than that, I don't foresee any possible changes.

WITHERSPOON

What are your thoughts on the entire weekend?

"We had a lot of new pitchers in there this weekend, and I feel like that was the difference. Those guys are the reason why we are going to be good. We had a lot of young guys get in there. Some transfers got in there, and we were just stringing hits together. We've got guys that are battlers in there this year. I feel like that was the biggest difference between last year and this year. It's obviously an exciting sweep. We didn't win many series last year. We're off to a good start, but we're ready to go to Oxford, too."

What is the feeling in the clubhouse. It's only three games in, but does it have a different feel?

"Well winning helps, but I love this team already. It's early but I love every guy on this team."

You had one sweep all of last year. How good does it feel to equal that total right away?

"It's awesome. The fans were great. The first weekend you can't ask for anything else. Whatever you're doing individually, everyone was a part of it in the dugout out here. We got three games against a good team."

Yesterday and today Wright State started pitching around you (four walks) to get to Rowland, and he made them pay today. How good was that to see?

"It's awesome. If they're not going to pitch to me, I'm not going to go out of my zone. I know I've got Matt behind me, and I told coach Jewett he was going to hit a bomb right there right before he did, so it was good to have him behind me. I'm so happy for Rowland right now."

How much are you looking forward to the trip to Oxford?

"Definitely. We're all excited to go down there. We haven't even talked anything about it. I've been there my freshman year. It's a fun place to play. It's a good team, I'm sure."

Last year when you were in center field it seemed like some innings would never end--walk, walk, walk, walk. How much easier is it to play when the pitchers are getting the ball over the plate?

"I hate to say it, but yes (that's what it was like last year). It's just more fun when you're in a one-run game and you have confidence in the guy on the mound. Those guys looked great this weekend."

What was the approach at the plate?

'We have a lot of guys battling with two strikes. They were telling us some numbers before yesterday's game even, just from Friday night's game, but the whole weekend we were going two strikes and then putting bats on balls. That was great."

You did not leave a runner on base until the seventh inning today.

"We've got a good lineup. One through nine I'm confident in anyone in there to drive them in and get on base. There are no holes or anything."

ROWLAND

What worked for you at the plate today?

"I was seeing it good. Not so much on Friday. Yesterday I took some good swings but just missed a couple of balls. Today I was able to find some barrels and it worked out."

They pitched around Witherspoon three times yesterday and once today, and then you made them pay with the home run. How nice was it to see that ball go over the wall?

"Yeah, it's not surprising. Spoon's our best player so I'm sure he's going to be getting pitched around a little bit all year. It's good to hit behind him. I get pitches to see after with him and everyone else on."

What are your thoughts on the weekend in general?

"There's no better way to start the season. After we got the first two, we got the series win, which was big, but we knew that we wanted to come out and get a sweep and put the exclamation point on the weekend. It was good to get three. That's always the goal."

Did it feel different in the clubhouse this weekend compared to last year?

"This is a close-knit group just like last year was a close-knit group. We have a lot of new guys. Me, BJ (Bjorngjeld) and Issa (actually a redshirt junior) are the only three seniors (grad transfer Ben White is in his final year, too). Everyone loves to talk about how we're a bunch of new guys, but we're a really close-knit group throughout the fall and the spring, so it might be early in the season but we're close. It's awesome."

What are your thoughts on the pitching staff?

"We have a great pitching staff this year. We were able to get a lot of freshmen out there and get their feet wet, so that's big. They are going to be guys for us going forward. We have a lot of talented arms."

You were 0 for 9 before you hit the home run. It's ridiculously early, but some guys might start pressing right away. What was your approach?

"We came out of the first two games 2-0, so that was really important. Especially Friday night I was able to draw that walk for the go-ahead run when we scored in the 7th, so that was good. At the end of the day If we get the win, that's all I'm really worried about. I know that the guys have confidence in me 0 for 9 or 9 for 9."

BJORNGJELD

What are your thoughts on the weekend as a whole?

"One of the best team about this team is that we fight back. We were down at some point in all three of those games, but in the dugout the confidence never left and the guys' willingness to go out there and make plays never went away. When we get behind, we have confidence we will come right back."

What about the relievers?

"We're definitely trying to save our starters' arms this week and work our way into the season, but we are deep in the bullpen. We have some freshmen that can throw, so we are going to see lots of pitchers all year."

You pitched two clean innings. What did you like best?

"The curveball was working for me. That's pretty much all I've got, so thank God."

How much is the competition on the mound driving everyone to get better?

"Oh yeah. There's definitely a lot of competition. If I don't go out there and pitch well, these freshmen are definitely going to take all my innings. But yeah, last year you were going out there no matter what. This year the competition is making everyone play their best."

You are one of the few players who had any role on the 2016 AAC championship team. Is the main difference just the ability to pitch this year compared to last year?

"One of the big differences is how many pitchers we have that are going to pitch, but we don't have any holes in our lineup and our defense is amazing. Just all the way around we're a really solid team."

Could you have drawn an opening weekend up any better?

"Oh, it's the best way to start, especially going into Ole Miss. It's a real challenge next weekend, and this was a big confidence booster. I think we're going to be ready."

With so many newcomers on the team, do you have a feel how it will handle going on the road?

"Coming into the fall I was worried about forming as a team, but man, this team came together big time. We all love each other, and we have formed a great brotherhood. It's going to really show this year."

What did you think of Rowland today?

"He had a rough two first games, but no one lost faith in him. We saw Row play all fall and saw him play all preseason. We know how good he is and we were just waiting for this to happen."

I had sent my first story to The Advocate, one I sent seconds after the final pitch to beat deadline before I went down to get quotes for the second version, appearing online only.

Jewett, winning relief pitcher Connor Pellerin and catcher Acy Owen talked.

JEWETT

"We had two really good starting pitchers out there. I was talking to their coach after the game, and it looked like more of a four-or-five-weeks-into-the-season type of game. I thought everybody played pretty good baseball. It was a good start for us. I told the kids, enjoy tonight but get back in the ballpark tomorrow. We've got to be ready to reset and do it again."

What does a win like this mean?

"The thing I told the kids after the game was we took two punches in that game and we punched back, and that's a championship characteristic of a team, especially early. I didn't see any panic and I didn't see anybody lose control of their body language or their mind. We just kept saying, hey it's a good challenge for us. We've got the hammer, we're the home team, and every time they scored, we seemed the next half inning to bounce back on the scoreboard and get the Johnny Momentum back in our dugout. It's a quality opponent and a really good win for the Wave tonight."

Did you get what you expected out of Kaleb Roper? He settled down after the first time through the lineup and didn't really give up anything after that point.

"Last year I might have run him back out there (after he threw 78 pitches through five innings), but I've been talking to you guys about our pieces in the pen, and we wanted to get some feet wet and get some guys out there. Obviously you can see the line score. Six guys we used tonight in different situations. We thought at 77 pitches, we'd get Sam (Bjorngjeld) in there, a good landing spot with nobody on to start the inning. We just kind of mixed and matched it from there. We wrote that up in the office this morning, if we could get the lead late then we were going to the guy, and we had the right kind of the game at the end."

Did this team play up to a lot of the talking points you had in the preseason--the pitching depth, the defense and some timely hitting?

"Yeah. And one of the runs they got was just that ball that was kind of hit what we call a two flight down the third-base line. (Kody) Hoese might have picked his eyes up just a smidge. He makes that play every day that ends in Y. He just pulled his eyes up just a little bit and the ball got down in the corner, but other than that, we played pretty well all around. We had some opportunities with the runner at third a couple of times with less than two outs that we had some air in the bat that we'll tighten up as time goes on. Those runs are important. A runner at third base with less than two outs, we've got to find ways to drive those in, but one of them was Ty Johnson and one of them was Spoon. Two of our better hitters, the right guys at the right spot, and it just didn't go their way at that at-bat. But up and down the lineup we had some pretty good at-bats."

Was it good to see the contributions of so many newcomers?

"Yeah, no question. (Trevor) Jensen was pretty good at the plate tonight, too. Ty Johnson smashed that ball to right field and made a nice catch in left. Remember, that's a catcher now. He's a catcher, and we've been cross-training him. He gives you some comfort out there for sure, and then Acy Owen, a big swing of the bat (home run) right there tonight. We've got some offensive players in there that got their feet wet and then we certainly got some guys on the mound, too, so it was a good combination for us."

You went to three straight freshmen in the seventh inning on the mound, and although they didn't hold the lead, how much confidence do you have in them?

"I have a lot of confidence in them. I want them to have as much confidence in themselves as I have in them. I could see a little bit of nervousness probably in their breath and their body language on the mound a little bit, but I said, you got this, and I wouldn't put you out here if I don't trust you. Trust is a big word in our program, and I trusted everybody that we played tonight. The kids hung tough and found a way to get a W."

ACY OWEN

What was the pitch you hit for the home run?

"It was a fastball. He fooled me with a changeup first pitch, so I was just thinking fastball inside and I got what I was looking for."

Do you feel like you guys set a tone tonight?

Oh, yeah. Definitely That's a really good team. A lot of people have them going in a regional, and it's a really big win coming on a Friday night and getting a win. Roper pitched well and then Pellerin stepped up and as a freshman did really well in his first time, too."

How did it feel to see so many new guys make contributions in the first game?

"Oh, it's awesome. We have a lot of junior college guys, junior college pitchers and a lot of freshmen pitchers. I know Trevor (Jensen) was looking forward to it. He's a junior college first baseman like me. I'm roommates with him. The whole week's been exciting. To come out and see everybody who's new contribute and help this team win is really awesome."

PELLERIN

"Wright State is a great team. They can really swing it. We fought the whole time. Kaleb Roper did a great job and then McAffer came in at the end and closed it up. It was really fun to be out there. It was a great time."

You got into trouble when they came back but you were able to pitch out of it.

"Like I said, they have a great team. We really fought. These one-run games really show what kind of team you are. As long as you keep fighting throughout the whole time and piece together a couple of hits, it all turns out at the end. It was a lot of fun."

Did you have any jitters?

"Yes. That was my first time going out there, so I definitely had a little jitters and adrenaline. Overall I kind of found it, so it was definitely good."

You wanted the call on the 2-2 pitch before you walked in the tying run. How did you get passed it and come back to earn the win?

"That's the game of baseball. That's going to happen all the time. You kind of just wipe it off like we always say. We say, so what, next pitch. When that happens, there's nothing you can do. It's the umpire's call and it just happens sometimes."

plus postage

Please advise if you can help

Back in 2007, Coach Toledo complained that we were weak as a squad. Five years later, C.J. Johnson had the same complaint. Another four years passed and Coach Fritz voiced the same concern and, even today, believes we much get much stronger. I remember Toledo saying we only had three guys on the entire roster that could bench 400#. We probably have more than that in our incoming freshman class, so that’s a start. And, although the bench press is only one indicator of upper body strength (some think repetitions at a lower weight may be more important, for example), I wonder, after a decade from Toledo’s expressed concern, how many of our current players can bench press 400#. I would guess Coach Speer has that info on the tip of his tongue.

Roll Wave!!!

At least I assume it's the final ranking.

Tulane tied Duke for 64th and had the fifth highest ranking out of 62 Group of Five schools, trailing Cincinnati (47), Boise State (55), South Florida (56) and Houston (60).

To put the difference between the Power Five schools and the non-power five schools in perspective (and part, though not most, is due to ratings bias in favor of the big conferences), Tulane is ahead of only five P5 programs--Arkansas (66), Virginia (also 66), Boston College (69), Oregon State (72) and Texas Tech (78) --and none of those schools signed more than 20 players.

Still, this is a huge step forward. Tulane only once finished higher than fourth, placing third in a weaker CUSA in 2004, since Rivals started team ratings in 2002. The ratings by year:

AAC:

2017: 11
2016: 9
2015: lower than 9
2014: 8

CUSA:

2013: 4
2012: 7
2011: not in top 10
2010: not in top 10
2009: 9
2008: not in top 9
2007: not in top 10
2006: tie for 9
2005: not in top 10
2004: 3
2003: 8
2002: 5

Here are the rankings for AAC teams below Tulane this year:

UCF 71
Temple 75
Memphis 80
East Carolina 84 tie
SMU 84 tie
Tulsa 86
UConn 89
Navy 90

Here are the rankings of Tulane's non-conference opponents for 2018:

Ohio State 2
Wake Forest 60
UAB not in top 99 (and nowhere to be found in CUSA rankings. Strange.) 102 on 247Sports
Nicholls NA

Tulane plays ECU, Memphis, SMU and Navy at home
Tulane plays Cincinnati, Houston, South Florida and Tulsa on the road

If Tulane beats Wake Forest, I could see the Wave going 6-0 at Yulman Stadium next year. The road schedule will be very tough.

Tulane rose to 66 in the 247Sports rankings once that site finally updated the final three signings. That placed the Wave third in the AAC behind Cincinnati (47) and USF (63) but ahead of Houston (73), with UCF (72) also ahead of the Cougars.

Talked to Jewett before practice today.

Tulane is going with Kaleb Roper on Friday, Ben White on Saturday and Keagan Gillies on Sunday, leaving Ross Massey, my feature guy Trent Johnson and Chase Solesky out of the weekend rotation for now.

"It's really just kind of the way that they pitched (in preseason practice)," Jewett said. "Not that the other guys did poorly, but those three guys jumped out when it came to statistics and numbers and strike percentages and all those types of things."

Jewett has been high on Roper, an Arizona transfer by way of a juco, since the day he arrived.

"One it's the ability, but two it's the heartbeat, the composure, holding runners, it's fielding your position, the ability to rhythm change with his delivery," Jewett said. "That doesn't mean that he's going to win every time he's out there. That's not what I'm saying, but there's kind of an "it" factor in there I'm kind of attracted to. When you're the lead dog out of the gate on a Friday night, that's kind of an important. Friday night starters all have a little something to them, some mound presence, competitiveness and a little spirit. He fits quite a few of those."

White, a graduate transfer from Holy Cross, has an interesting history. He went 0-5 with a 3.18 ERA as a freshman, striking out 42 in 51 innings. He went 4-5 with a 3.82 ERA as a sophomore, striking out 55 in 61.1 innings while earning second-team All Patriot League honors. He got injured as a junior, requiring Tommy John surgery after pitching three times for 15 innings with a 3.60 ERA. Last year he really struggled in his return, starting five times and appearing in nine games with an ERA of 7.52. He did manage to strike out 25 in 20.1 innings, and Holy Cross made an NCAA regional for the first time since 1978, even beating Nebraska after losing its opener to top-ranked Oregon State. White pitched in relief against Oregon State and again versus Yale on the third day, giving up six hits and four runs in three innings.

Said Jewett: "He has the age, experience, strikes, the ability to throw three pitches, kind of do all those things."

Gillies, a Brother Martin product, gave up 46 hits in 35.2 innings with a 6:56 ERA over 23 appearances as a freshman. He was spotty at best, but Jewett says he is a different guy as a sophomore.

"Keagan might have made our biggest jump in terms of that freshman to sophomore year," Jewett said. "His game has just elevated. He's earned this opportunity.

"I talked to Trent and Chase and Ross and those guys that were in the running, and they still are. This is week 1. We've got quite a few five-game weeks and the rest are four-game weeks, so we are going to need all those guys for sure. And going into this weekend, it's kind of starter 1A and B because nobody's going to pitch nine unless we get 75 pitches out of somebody in nine innings. We've got almost like a two-headed monster going into it, and (Will) McAffer will be the closer.

Jewett mentioned Connor Pellerin as another strong candidate out of the bullpen, also references Josh Bates, Brendan Cellucci and Sam Bjorngjeld as possibilities. With Massey, Cellucci, Bjorngjeld and Justin Campbell, Tulane will have four available lefties in the bullpen.

As for the lineup, the starters for the opener are definite and the batting order is tentative after the first three, which are set in stone.

1) Ty Johnson LF
2) Grant Witherspoon CF
3) Matt Rowland, DH
4) Trever Jensen, 1B
5) Acy Owen, C
6) Kobi Owen, RF
7) Jonathan Artigues, 2B
8) Kody Hoese, 3B
9) Sal Gozzo, SS

The only surprise on the list is Artigues, who filled in as an emergency catcher last year, starting ahead of Alex Galy at 2B, and by surprise I mean not on merit but from what I had heard earlier in the preseason.

"That might be our best defensive (lineup)," Jewett said. "I don't know if it's our best offense,, but it's our best defense, and if you have good pitching and defense. then you're going to be in games."

No one who would be a candidate for playing time is unavailable due to injury.

The AAC released its football schedule yesterday, and for the first time since Conference USA sanctioned football, Tulane is playing all four of its non-conference games before its eight AAC conference games. I like that idea because, as we saw at FIU last fall, teams often don't come to play in random non-conference road games.

Tulane obviously will be focused for the season opener against Wake Forest on a Thursday at Yulman Stadium. Then comes Nicholls State, and no FCS team has ever beaten Tulane. Next is a game at UAB followed by a paycheck date at Ohio State. That UAB game would be more difficult if it came after the start of conference play.

The conference schedule is spaced nicely. alternating between home and road games with the exception of consecutive road games on the last week of October (Tulsa) and the first week of November (USF). The big difference is Navy. which was Tulane's conference opener the past two season, coming to Yulman Stadium for the season finale.

I know some people aren't happy with having three games on weeknights, including the home games against Wake Forest and Memphis (Friday, Sept. 28) plus the Thursday trip to Houston on Nov. 15. I sympathize with people who have a hard time getting to those games, but personally, as a college football junkie, I love the opportunity to watch games on television on the Saturdays Tulane won't be playing. With the AAC needing alternative TV times to get attention, the weekday games are a fact of life.

Here are my initial thoughts on each game:

1) Wake Forest

This is one of the most important games of the Willie Fritz era. Wake Forest was a lot better this past year than in 2016, when it beat Tulane is an ugly, boring game to open the season in Winston Salem, but this is the type of game the Wave needs to win to prove it is on the rise.

Key stat: Willie Fritz is 0-10 against Power Five conference schools. You can throw out the four games when he was Sam Houston State because of the massive talent discrepancy, but he came awfully close in three losses at Georgia Southern and one at Tulane. In his first game at Georgia Southern, NC State drove 75 yards for the winning points with 1:37 left to beat him 24-23. Two weeks later, Georgia Southern rallied from a 35-10 halftime deficit to go ahead of Ga Tech 38-35 and had a first down at the Ga Tech 24 with less than 4:30 left when it lost a fumble. Ga Tech then drove for the winning touchdown with 23 seconds left, converting a pair of third-and-7 situations along the way.

The following year, Georgia kicked a field goal with six minutes left to tie the score at 17, then beat Ga Southern in OT when Fritz gambled on fourth-and-1 and got stuffed. The Bulldogs scored a touchdown on their first play to win 23-17. And at Wake Forest two years ago, Tulane had plenty of opportunities to score a touchdown in the 7-3 loss but could not do it, failing on four straight possessions in Wake territory in the second half.

As competitive as he is, you know Fritz will do everything in his power to end his streak against Wake Forest.

2) Nicholls State

Yes, Nicholls is considerably better than Grambling was last year, but no, Nicholls is not considerably better than the Southeastern team CJ's squad beat relatively comfortably in 2014. Tulane's advantage along the line of scrimmage will be too large.

Key stat: Again, Tulane has never lost to an FCS team.

3) At UAB

UAB was one of the worst bowl teams ever this year, beating Alabama A&M and Coastal Carolina out of conference and feasting on a really bad CUSA for six wins. That said, the Blazers are on about the same level as FIU, which whipped Tulane last year, so this game will be no gimme by any stretch.

Key stat: Tulane's outlier 49-10 win at UAB in 2011 was the only game Bob Toledo won by more than two scores in five-year tenure. The Wave then lost four straight games, prompting his firing.

4) At Ohio State

Tulane can't win this game, but I like the idea of scheduling one of these most years. The timing isn't great coming six days before the conference opener against Memphis--the Wave probably will be banged up at the end of this one--but that's life.

Key stat: First meeting. Not counting Rutgers, which joined the Big Ten after the 2014 game was scheduled, Tulane's last game against a Big Ten opponent was Michigan in 1972 (l. 41-7). The Wave played Penn State in the 1979 Liberty Bowl, but the Nittany Lions were not in the Big Ten then.

5) Memphis

Tulane has been housed by Memphis in three of their years in the AAC, losing 24-14 two years ago in the only "close" meeting. This is an opportunity to turn the tide, with Memphis losing a lot of skill position talent from a sensational offensive team.

Key stat: Memphis had beaten Tulane 11 straight times dating back to a Wave win in 2000. That's a bad look against a team that used to be one of the worst in D1, but no longer.

6) at Cincinnati

Tulane's worst loss of this past season was to Cincinnati, which struggled all year but won at Yulman Stadium when the Wave missed a chip shot field goal. That was a year to pound the Bearcats, who should rise back to their former status as perennial conference contender quickly if Luke Fickell is a good coach. The Bearcats had the highest rated recruiting class of any Group of Five school this cycle.

Key stat: Tulane's last visit to Cincinnati was 2001. The teams have played in New Orleans three times since then.

7) SMU

Tulane gets the Mustangs after its open date, but SMU has the same open date, so no advantage there. After the controversial, bowl-costing loss in Dallas this past November, you know Tulane will have extra incentive in the rematch. I don't usually put much stock in stuff like that, but in this case I do. SMU has a new coach and lost a lot of skill position talent, too.

Key stat: Seven of the last 10 meetings between the teams have been decided by 7 or fewer point, often in dramatic, last-second fashion.

8) at Tulsa

Has there even been a worse pick than mine of Tulsa to win the West this past year? At least I have company in Phil Steele, but Tulsa turned out to be terrible, finishing 1-7 while stopping no one and getting destroyed by Tulane on a hurricane-affected morning kickoff that had the Golden Hurricane more interested in getting out of town than playing. This should be a winnable game on the road.

Key stat: Tulsa has won all six conference meetings between the two teams in Tulsa, and all but one were by 23 points or more.

9) At South Florida

Without do-everything QB Quinton Flowers, it will be interesting to see how USF fares. This team looked shaky in a lot of departments under coach Charlie Strong despite having plenty of talent on both sides of the ball this past season. Does he get more comfortable in the second year, or was he propped up by Flowers?

Key stat: South Florida has never won a conference championship and has not appeared in the first three editions of the AAC Championship Game.

10) East Carolina

This game will be Homecoming for a reason. East Carolina struggled in pretty much every department this year, and coach Scottie Montgomery is on thin ice.

Key stat: Tulane has lost four straight homecoming games since joining the AAC.

11) At Houston

Tulane beat Houston at Yulman Stadium this past season, and if the Cougars start slowly next year, coach Major Applewhite will be on thin ice, too. And if he loses to Tulane again, look out. The last time a Houston coach lost at home to Tulane (Tony Levine: 2014), he got fired at the end of the season.

Key stat: Houston is the only AAC team Tulane has beaten that finished with a winning record and the Wave has done it twice. Houston's combined conference record in those two years was 10-6. The conference record of Tulane's other five victims was 5-35.

12) Navy

It's really interesting that Tulane gets Navy at the end of the year after coming really close to beating the Midshipmen in September the past two seasons. Actually, the Wave has played Navy well in all three of their conference meetings but has no wins to show for it. Maybe the timing will make a difference.

Key stat: The halftime scores of their three conference meetings have been Navy 10-7 (2015), Tulane 14-13 (2016) and Navy 14-13 (2017).

By my count, we have 21 rising seniors, which could change if there are more defections before the end of this school year. That means we'll likely sign another full class in the coming year. Here's the count by position:

QB(1): Banks
TE(2): Jones and Ardoin
OL(5): Leglue, D. Johnson, Granier, Knighton and Briggs
WR(3): Encalade, Hicks, Clewis
RB(1): D. Glenn (recently moved back to RB)
DL(3): Kennedy, Edwards and Woullard
DB(4): Shenall, Teamer, Lewis, Lofton
LB(1): Harris
P(1): Block

OL, TE, QB, WR are clearly a priority. You can also see why we're trying to bring in more DBs and DL this year.

Tulane just tweeted Alfred Thomas had signed. That will move the recruiting ranking higher and means Tulane has gotten one of its best DT hauls ever.

I have to take my son to school at 8 but should be back by 8:30 to cover the rest of the day. Assuming Keitha Jones signs, the Wave has one more opening, which figures to go to either "Prime" Garland or La'Dedric Jackson.