I will have transcripts of the baseball interviews from yesterday in my next post, and with spring football practice starting tomorrow, look for full coverage as usual of each day.
But here are a couple of quick notes on the now 23rd-ranked baseball team (D1Baseball.com) that continues to pass the sight test (mine anyway) as a regional participant but still has work to do on paper and needs to win its next six games to get to 15-2 entering a brutal portion of the schedule with a tough home series against ranked Long Beach State followed by eight consecutive road games (at Sun Belt favorite Dallas Baptist, a weekend series at perennial regional team Dallas Baptist, at LSU, at Wichita State to open AAC play).
Only three of Tulane's first 17 games will be against 2019 regional teams, and that's next weekend's series against SWAC champion Southern. Cal State Fullerton, which was ranked when Tulane played it, lost three of four last week to fall to 4-7, including a weekend series defeat to San Francisco. Florida Gulf Coast is 4-7, too. ULL is 4-8. But UNO followed its big win against Tulane by clobbering UConn in the first two games of a three-game series at Maestri Field--the Privateers' best series win in ages--to improve to 7-5.
After last week's failed experiment with midweek pitchers, Jewett tole me he is going with freshman Luke Jannetta as the starter against Texas Southern. That's an excellent idea. The NCAA selection committee counts every game equally, and you can't throw away those Tuesday and Wednesday affairs. Jannetta has not given up a run in 11 innings this year, and although his one inning of work against Middle Tennessee was shaky (two singles, two line-drive outs), his previous 10 innings were excellent and he throws strikes. Texas Southern beat Mississippi State last Tuesday but had been outscored 96-28 in its first nine games.
After some meager hitting in the first two weeks, I like the look of Tulane's lineup, particularly if catcher Luis Aviles continues to be the real deal. He was ticketed as the starting catcher before a preseason hand injury, and he made a huge difference Saturday and Sunday in his first two games.
This in the my preferred order when Ty Johnson returns:
1) Johnson
2) Hudson Haskin
3) Trevor Minder (absolute stud)
4) Grant Mathews
5) Luis Aviles
6) Frankie Niemann
7) Jonathon Artigues
8) Ethan Groff
9) Collin Burns
Haskin will start getting better pitches to hit with Johnson in front of him and Minder behind him. Mathews, who always has been streaky, has been scuffling lately but is a big-time hitter. Aviles went 3 for 6 with a home run and two doubles. That's a potent top 5 if Aviles proves he can hit better pitching than he faced over the weekend.
But here are a couple of quick notes on the now 23rd-ranked baseball team (D1Baseball.com) that continues to pass the sight test (mine anyway) as a regional participant but still has work to do on paper and needs to win its next six games to get to 15-2 entering a brutal portion of the schedule with a tough home series against ranked Long Beach State followed by eight consecutive road games (at Sun Belt favorite Dallas Baptist, a weekend series at perennial regional team Dallas Baptist, at LSU, at Wichita State to open AAC play).
Only three of Tulane's first 17 games will be against 2019 regional teams, and that's next weekend's series against SWAC champion Southern. Cal State Fullerton, which was ranked when Tulane played it, lost three of four last week to fall to 4-7, including a weekend series defeat to San Francisco. Florida Gulf Coast is 4-7, too. ULL is 4-8. But UNO followed its big win against Tulane by clobbering UConn in the first two games of a three-game series at Maestri Field--the Privateers' best series win in ages--to improve to 7-5.
After last week's failed experiment with midweek pitchers, Jewett tole me he is going with freshman Luke Jannetta as the starter against Texas Southern. That's an excellent idea. The NCAA selection committee counts every game equally, and you can't throw away those Tuesday and Wednesday affairs. Jannetta has not given up a run in 11 innings this year, and although his one inning of work against Middle Tennessee was shaky (two singles, two line-drive outs), his previous 10 innings were excellent and he throws strikes. Texas Southern beat Mississippi State last Tuesday but had been outscored 96-28 in its first nine games.
After some meager hitting in the first two weeks, I like the look of Tulane's lineup, particularly if catcher Luis Aviles continues to be the real deal. He was ticketed as the starting catcher before a preseason hand injury, and he made a huge difference Saturday and Sunday in his first two games.
This in the my preferred order when Ty Johnson returns:
1) Johnson
2) Hudson Haskin
3) Trevor Minder (absolute stud)
4) Grant Mathews
5) Luis Aviles
6) Frankie Niemann
7) Jonathon Artigues
8) Ethan Groff
9) Collin Burns
Haskin will start getting better pitches to hit with Johnson in front of him and Minder behind him. Mathews, who always has been streaky, has been scuffling lately but is a big-time hitter. Aviles went 3 for 6 with a home run and two doubles. That's a potent top 5 if Aviles proves he can hit better pitching than he faced over the weekend.
