Talking to the team and Jewett regularly, I never though things were as bad behind the scenes as others indicates on other message boards, but I also did not anticipate the dramatic turnaround this year after the 3-12 start. I was all prepared to bring up what happened to Florida in the first year under Andy Lopez in 1995, when he inherited a team with a lot of potential, did not mesh with the returning players and had an abysmal finish that left players' parents ripping him and saying he had ruined everything with his my-way-or-the-highway talk in the locker room while maintaining a happy face in public. The next year, Florida made the College World Series.
But that analogy does not apply anymore because the Green Wave has come together rather than splitting apart at the seams. If Tulane makes a regional, which obviously remains a big IF at this point, it will be more dangerous than it was the past two years. Pitching depth is not as important in a four-team regional as it is during a regular week, and this team hits better than the last two. Yes, I know they struck out an absurd 18 times against UConn Saturday, but they struck out a ton the last two years, too. Hunter Williams has become a superstar, and he will have more help this postseason than last. The infield defense is terrific. Corey Merrill is capable of pitching better than Tulane's opening-game starters in the postseason the last two years (Patrick Duester in 2015, Emerson Gibbs in 2016), when the Wave got whipped in its opening game by UNC Wilmington and Boston College. Christian Colletti, the AAC pitcher of the week, looks like the real deal out of the bullpen, solidifying a huge hole.
Sweeping UConn was the best sweep for Tulane is ages. The Huskies are not a good hitting team, and their infield defense was laughably bad on pop-ups (that being said, only the first of four blown pop-ups helped Tulane score any runs; the Wave came up empty after the other three), but their starting pitching is terrific. Tulane will not face a better 1-2-3 punch the rest of the way, including Houston. Suddenly, the Wave is doing what winning teams do, overcoming a massive pitching mismatch on paper in the opener, getting a command performance from Merrill on Friday and coming up huge in the clutch (a staple of David Pierce's teams) with two home runs in the ninth inning on Saturday.
The next step is getting a solid performance from Ross Massey tonight. The Wave probably is going to need him in the postseason because teams have begun hitting Solesky hard. Just after I proclaimed him rock solid, he has had three bad performances in a row, and honestly, LSU tattooed a lot of balls in his last "good start", but they all went right to Tulane outfielders in his three-inning scoreless stint at the Box. If Massey can recover from his complete loss of control earlier in the season, another big IF, the Wave should be able to win enough games to reach the postseason.
We'll know a lot more by next Tuesday because this six-game stretch is a killer. ULL, which has been to regionals five years in a row, needs a win tonight because of its low RPI and unexpectedly weak conference. USM, which will face Bjorngjeld tomorrow, is trying to get in position to host this year. Houston is Houston, and even without Seth Romero, is very talented and will want revenge for Tulane's series win that gave the Wave the AAC title in Houston last year. LSU is tired of losing to Tulane and will be motivated next Tuesday to end the three-game skid.
A 4-2 performance against that murderer's row would be great, but I'm not discounting anything with this team right now. Anything worse than 3-3 would spell trouble. For a team with this many seniors who have invested this much in the program, missing a regional obviously would be a crushing blow regardless of the second-half turnaround.
The best news is the games still matter. Not many, if any of us, would have predicted that a month ago, when it appeared Clearwater was Tulane's only hope for salvation.
But that analogy does not apply anymore because the Green Wave has come together rather than splitting apart at the seams. If Tulane makes a regional, which obviously remains a big IF at this point, it will be more dangerous than it was the past two years. Pitching depth is not as important in a four-team regional as it is during a regular week, and this team hits better than the last two. Yes, I know they struck out an absurd 18 times against UConn Saturday, but they struck out a ton the last two years, too. Hunter Williams has become a superstar, and he will have more help this postseason than last. The infield defense is terrific. Corey Merrill is capable of pitching better than Tulane's opening-game starters in the postseason the last two years (Patrick Duester in 2015, Emerson Gibbs in 2016), when the Wave got whipped in its opening game by UNC Wilmington and Boston College. Christian Colletti, the AAC pitcher of the week, looks like the real deal out of the bullpen, solidifying a huge hole.
Sweeping UConn was the best sweep for Tulane is ages. The Huskies are not a good hitting team, and their infield defense was laughably bad on pop-ups (that being said, only the first of four blown pop-ups helped Tulane score any runs; the Wave came up empty after the other three), but their starting pitching is terrific. Tulane will not face a better 1-2-3 punch the rest of the way, including Houston. Suddenly, the Wave is doing what winning teams do, overcoming a massive pitching mismatch on paper in the opener, getting a command performance from Merrill on Friday and coming up huge in the clutch (a staple of David Pierce's teams) with two home runs in the ninth inning on Saturday.
The next step is getting a solid performance from Ross Massey tonight. The Wave probably is going to need him in the postseason because teams have begun hitting Solesky hard. Just after I proclaimed him rock solid, he has had three bad performances in a row, and honestly, LSU tattooed a lot of balls in his last "good start", but they all went right to Tulane outfielders in his three-inning scoreless stint at the Box. If Massey can recover from his complete loss of control earlier in the season, another big IF, the Wave should be able to win enough games to reach the postseason.
We'll know a lot more by next Tuesday because this six-game stretch is a killer. ULL, which has been to regionals five years in a row, needs a win tonight because of its low RPI and unexpectedly weak conference. USM, which will face Bjorngjeld tomorrow, is trying to get in position to host this year. Houston is Houston, and even without Seth Romero, is very talented and will want revenge for Tulane's series win that gave the Wave the AAC title in Houston last year. LSU is tired of losing to Tulane and will be motivated next Tuesday to end the three-game skid.
A 4-2 performance against that murderer's row would be great, but I'm not discounting anything with this team right now. Anything worse than 3-3 would spell trouble. For a team with this many seniors who have invested this much in the program, missing a regional obviously would be a crushing blow regardless of the second-half turnaround.
The best news is the games still matter. Not many, if any of us, would have predicted that a month ago, when it appeared Clearwater was Tulane's only hope for salvation.