Tulane beats Nicholls to end 5-game skid

NEW ORLEANS – The Tulane University baseball team (11-7) triumphed over Nicholls State (9-9) in a 5-3 ballgame on Wednesday night inside Greer Field at Turchin Stadium.

The Green Wave snapped its skid as Jared Hart picked up the big hit and the pitching staff kept the Colonels at bay.

“Put the ball in play, use your speed to put pressure on the opponent, and make them feel you a little bit,” head coach Travis Jewett said. “Putting the ball in play with two strikes is going to be a big factor for us going forward. That’s the key.”

Ethan Groff and Jackson Linn each had three hits as the Green Wave collected eleven in total. Tulane struck out only five times as a group.

Freshman Chandler Welch got the first start of his career and went a season-high five innings. He allowed only two earned runs on just one hit while striking out five.

“Chandler was outstanding,” Jewett said. “He got us into the middle of the game. If he could’ve given us three or four, we would’ve been happy. I thought he did a great job.”

In the bottom of the second, Tulane took a 1-0 lead when Groff hit a two-out single up the middle, scoring Linn from second base. The RBI was Groff’s team-leading 16th.

The Green Wave extended its lead to 2-0 when Luis Aviles crushed a solo home run over the wall in left, his second of the year.

“I landed on it,” Aviles said. “I really got that one. This was a really big win. Jewett’s been good at keeping us on track. We stuck with it, and it was good to get back that winning feeling.”

In the top of the fifth with a Colonel on first and one out, the runner took off headed for second. Catcher Luis Aviles fielded the pitch in the dirt, slid behind the left-handed hitter, and threw a seed to Trevor Minder who put down a swipe tag on the would-be base-stealer. Welch struck out the hitter on the next pitch for the third out of the inning.

Aviles put a charge into a ball in the bottom of the fifth to left-center that was a few feet from being his second home run of the day.

In the bottom of the fifth, the Wave loaded the bases for Hart. Tulane’s center fielder proceeded to rip the first pitch into the left-center field gap, clearing the bases and extending the Tulane lead to 5-0.

Nicholls broke through in the top of the sixth, putting three runs across.

The Colonels had runners on first-and-third with one out in the top of the eighth when Aviles cut down his second runner of the game. Zach DeVito then struck out the batter to escape the inning.

DeVito came back out in the ninth and retired Nicholls in order for his third save of the season.

UP NEXT: Tulane welcomes Villanova to GFATS for a three-game weekend series. First pitch on Friday is at 6:30 p.m.