April 8, 2008

Box Score

NEW ORLEANS, La. - The Colonels scored first, but a grand slam gave the Green Wave a lead they would not relinquish as Tulane defeated Nicholls 8-1 Tuesday night at Turchin Stadium.

Matt Petiton picked up the win for Tulane, improving to 2-0 on the season, throwing four innings of two-hit relief. Petiton struck out two and walked one.

Green Wave pitchers scattered four hits through nine innings.

For the Colonels, Ryan Cheramie falls to 0-2 on the season after giving up four runs on two hits and six walks through 3.2 innings. The righty fanned three Green Wave batters.

Both teams threatened early getting runners in scoring position through the first three innings, but could not score a run.

"We left four runners in scoring position in the first three innings of the game," said head coach Chip Durham. "If we get one or two timely hits there with that homerun, maybe we have a three or four runs and that grand slam doesn't put us back to bad."

Nicholls got a run on the board in the top half of the fourth inning on a pinchhit solo shot to the deepest part of the park by Brett Hoeflich.

But the Green Wave answered with six of their own in the bottom half of the inning as Colonel pitchers issued four walks and gave up a grand slam by Seth Henry to left center field to put Tulane up 6-1.

Tulane added an insurance run in each of the fifth and sixth innings, putting one across the plate on a sac fly by Sam Honeck and walking in a run on back-to-back-to-back base-on-balls.

Colonel pitchers walked 13 batters and hit two, allowing 15 total free passes.

"But the walks and the hit batters did us in - six of their eight runs came off of those walks and hit batsmen," noted Durham. "So, if you don't give your offense a chance and force them to play catch-up, it's hard to beat anyone. I thought our pitchers didn't come out and compete as well as they could have and that's tough to overcome offensively."

For Nicholls, Hoeflich and Shane Barksdale posted extra-base hits as Barksdale doubled to right center in the third.

Patrick Thompson and Brandt Boudreaux also logged hits for Nicholls.

The Colonels return to Didier field for a midweek game versus Southern University on Wednesday night. First pitch is slated for 6:30 p.m.

Fans can follow the action statistically by clicking the GameTracker link at www.GeauxColonels.com an can listen live on KTIB 64 AM and at www.ThibodauxOnLine.com.

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