Owen’s walkoff hit in 10th leads Tulane past Wright State, 6-5

Box Score (PDF)

NEW ORLEANS – Junior catcher Acy Owen hit a walkoff double to score Kobi Owen in the bottom of the 10th inning as Tulane clinched the season-opening series over Wright State with a 6-5 win Saturday evening at Greer Field at Turchin Stadium.

Junior Ross Massey (1-0) shut out the Raiders for the final 3.0 innings, allowing just one baserunner in that span to earn the victory. The Green Wave (2-0) trailed 5-2 in the seventh but tied the game in the bottom half as junior first baseman Trevor Jensen doubled home two runs and scored on a wild pitch.

In the 10th inning sophomore outfielder Kobi Owen hit a one-out single up the middle to set up Acy Owen’s game-winning hit. Acy Owen pulled a 2-2 pitch down the right field line that bounced off the wall in the corner, allowing Kobi Owen to score from first base ahead of the throw.

Sunday’s series finale has been moved up 30 minutes to 12:30 p.m. to accommodate Wright State travel plans.

“(Massey) had a confident look on his face and he had an aura about him, and I think he was back to his old self,” Tulane head coach Travis Jewett said. “Our bullpen did great all night. They really kept the game in check and left (Wright State) right there. It gave us a chance to put some things together and we were able to come through in the end.”

Massey entered in relief to start the eighth inning and walked the first batter, then rebounded to retire nine straight to end the game. He struck out two and allowed just one fly out to leave the infield.

As it did in the opener on Friday, Tulane responded to Wright State’s first run in the second inning. Kobi Owen doubled to lead it off and scored on a sacrifice fly by sophomore third baseman Kody Hoese to tie the game, 1-1.

The Green Wave did not immediately score after the Raiders (0-2) took a 3-1 lead in the top of the fourth, but cut it to 3-2 in the fifth on Jensen’s RBI single. Junior left fielder Ty Johnson and junior center fielder Grant Witherspoon drew one-out walks to set up the RBI hit. Jensen finished the game 2-for-5 with three RBI and a run, Johnson had two hits and scored twice, and Witherspoon walked three times.

Wright State extended its lead to 5-2 in the seventh – the largest lead by either team so far in the series – on a two-run double by second baseman Matt Morrow. The homestanding Wave, however, bounced back with three runs in the bottom half to make it 5-5. Jensen doubled home Johnson and senior designated hitter Matt Rowland to make it 5-4, then scampered home after a balk and a wild pitch to knot it up.

Graduate transfer Ben White made his first start for the Green Wave, pitching 4.0 innings and allowing three runs on three hits with two strikeouts. Sophomore Chase Solesky pitched 2.2 innings in relief and junior Ryan Green made his Tulane debut, recording an out to end the seventh against the only batter he faced.

Derek Hendrixson (0-1) took the loss in relief for Wright State. Raiders starter Zane Collins pitched 5.0 innings and allowed two runs on four hits with two strikeouts.

“I just like this group and our dugout. It’s calm. It’s cool. It’s collected. It’s spirited. It is understanding that we are all in this together,” Jewett said. “We are just talking about winning our pitches. We get down 5-2 in the seventh, but we are just playing our pitches until the umpire says the game is over. The kids just have that mentality going right now and if we can maintain that it will take us a long way.”

The series finale on Sunday will be broadcast online only at TulaneGreenWave.com due to the Tulane women’s basketball broadcast on 88.3 WRBH. The live video and audio webcast will be available for free.

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Tulane 6, Wright State 5 (Feb 17, 2018 at New Orleans, La.)

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Wright State…….. 010 200 200 0 –  5  6  0      (0-2)

Tulane………….. 010 010 300 1 –  6  8  1      (2-0)

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Pitchers: Wright State – COLLINS, Zane; FOSTER, Jason(6); GREMLING, Mitch(7);

HENDRIXSON, Derek(10) and GILTROW, Brandon; JONES, Bentley. Tulane – WHITE, Ben;

SOLESKY, Chase(5); GREEN, Ryan(7); MASSEY, Ross(8) and OWEN, Acy.

Win-MASSEY, Ross(1-0)  Loss-HENDRIXSON, Derek(0-1)  T-3:31  A-1871

Weather: 79 Ptly Cloudy, Wind WSW@7mph

COLLINS faced 1 batter in the 6th.