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HAMMOND – The Lions threatened late, but a ninth-inning rally fell short as the Southeastern Louisiana University baseball team (20-14, 10-8 Southland Conference) fell to the Tulane Green Wave (17-13, 3-6 Conference USA) by a final of 6-3 in New Orleans on Tuesday night.
Tulane struck first by stringing together three hits in the second. Drew Allain led off with an infield hit to second. Three batters later Nick Bullosa laid down a bunt single and Matt Ryan singled to right to bring home Allain and make it 1-0 Tulane after two.
After trading zeroes with the Green Wave in the third, the Lions tied things up in the top of the fourth. Senior left fielder Brandon Street was hit by a pitch with one out and sophomore first baseman Joe Sparacino followed with a double down the right field line to score Street from first to make it 1-1.
However, Tulane would reclaim a one run lead in its next turn at bat as Drew Allain notched his fifth home run of the year to make it 2-1 after four.
Following a scoreless fifth, Tulane struck again with a run-scoring fielder's choice off the bat of Bullosa to claim a 3-1 lead after six.
The Green Wave threatened to break the game open with the bases loaded and two outs as Scott Powell hit a blooper into short center field. Fortunately, for the Lions, freshman shortstop Justin Boudreaux made a diving over-the-shoulder catch for the final out and keep Southeastern within two.
Southeastern responded in the seventh inning as Cody Gougler drilled his first career home run to right center field. The one-out solo shot brought the Lions to within 3-2 heading into the top of the seventh, but Tulane responded with a run scoring single from Seth Henry to reclaim a two-run lead in the bottom half.
The Green Wave then extended its lead in the eighth on an RBI single from Ryan and a sacrifice fly from Sam Honek to make it 6-2 heading to the ninth.
Southeastern threatened in the ninth as senior third baseman Jordan D'Arensbourg led off with the Lions 70th hit batsmen of the season. Two batters later, Boudreaux drew a one out walk and sophomore catcher Josh Cryer legged out an infield hit to load the bases and bring the tying run to the plate in form of senior second baseman Ty Summerlin.
Summerlin grounded out to first, but D'Arensbourg scored to bring the Lions to within three at 6-3. Unfortunately, that was as close as the Lions would get as sophomore center fielder Cass Hargis grounded out with runners at second and third to end the ballgame.
The Lions fell to Tulane for the first time this season after winning the first two games of the 2009 Senator's Cup Series. Southeastern defeated the Green Wave 5-3 on March 17 in New Orleans before defeating Tulane 11-9 the following day in Hammond to claim the Senator's Cup.
With the loss, the Lions extended their season-long losing streak to four games. Southeastern had not lost four in a row since dropping four consecutive decisions April 26-May 2, 2008.
Southeastern will return to action on Wednesday in Hammond when they host the UL-Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. at Pat Kenelly Diamond at Alumni Field in Hammond. Live stats and streaming audio play-by-play will be available online at www.LionSports.net and the game can be heard in the Hammond area on KSLU 90.9 FM.
