Tulane storms back in Cary to defeat St. Joe’s, 12-7

CARY, N.C. – Luke Glancy’s solo home run in the top of the eighth inning gave Tulane its first lead of the game and the squad never looked back in a 12-7 victory over the Saint Joseph’s Hawks Saturday afternoon at the USA Baseball National Training Complex.

After spotting the visitors seven runs in the first four innings of the game, the Green Wave (9-2) would keep the Hawks (2-4) off the board for the rest of the day as Tulane turned on the gas offensively by scoring 10 unanswered runs from the fifth inning on when they were down 7-2 to earn the victory.

Tulane finished the game pounding out 16 hits against the Hawks, with five players earning multiple hits led by Glancy who went 3-for-5 with 2 RBI and three runs scored in the contest. Kody Hoese belted his sixth home run of the year and second in back-to-back days among his two hits, two RBI and run scored. Trevor Jensen, David Bedgood and Jonathon Artigues rounded out the multi-hit Green Wave players on the day.

SJU finally ran into a pair of pitchers they couldn’t get anything past first in reliever Justin Campbell who pitched 2.2 shutout innings, allowing two hits with two strikeouts and a walk. Brendan Cellucci (1-0) closed the door effectively after that, earning the win by striking out six in the final 2.2 innings and did not give up a hit.

In his second-ever start on the mound, Hawks starting pitcher Jake Meyers stifled the Tulane bats early but ended the game allowing four runs, three earned on six hits with six strikeouts and four walks. Meyers exited the game with the lead and wouldn’t get the result as Luke Zimmerman was the pitcher that allowed Tulane to tie the game and Grant Calvarese (2-1) suffering the loss in the end.

Nate Thomas went 3-for-4 with two RBI, with leadoff hitter Brendan Hueth 2-for-5 with two runs scored. James McConnon and Andrew Cossetti both drove in two RBI, with third baseman Nate Thomas scoring twice and having two hits.

With just two runs on the board through four innings, Tulane started making some headway offensively in the top of the fifth as Hoese smashed his home run to left for the third run of the game for the team with an out on the board. After another Tulane out, Kobi Owen drew a walk and ended Meyer’s day.

Bedgood singled up the middle to put runners at the corners, but the inning looked to be over after that as Glancy hit a towering pop fly in the infield that was misplayed at second that allowed Owen to score to keep the inning alive.

A walk to Artigues loaded the bases, with Acy Owen drawing a walk after a lengthy at bat to bring in another run, and a wild pitch scoring one more to pull Tulane within one of the Hawks at 7-6.

Campbell retired the side convincingly in the fifth and sixth, as heading into the seventh Glancy singled through the left side to open the inning. Another walk to Artigues put two on, as a bunt single by Acy Owen loaded the bases again for the Green Wave.

With a 1-1 count, Gozzo hit a fly ball to left to score Glancy on the sacrifice fly to tie the game for the first time at 7-7.

Calvarese came on for the Hawks to start the eighth inning and got out the first two batters in quick order, but he couldn’t get past Glancy as he belted one down the right field line for the solo shot to put the Green Wave up 8-7.

Tulane added some insurance for Cellucci in the ninth as the squad got a two-RBI double from Kobi Owen, Tyler Heinrichs RBI single and Artigues RBI hit among five in the inning to go up 12-7, with the lefty getting past a pair of walks in the bottom of the inning to end the threat and close the game.

Tulane closes out the Army Invitational Sunday morning at 10 a.m. CT against the Army Black Knights.