HAMMOND, La. – Southeastern Louisiana broke open a tight game with an 8-run sixth inning Wednesday, cruising to a 13-4 win over No. 27-ranked Tulane in a non-conference game at Pat Kenelly Diamond at Alumni Field.
The Lions (5-3) picked up their second-straight win to wrap up a season-opening, 8-game homestand, defeating Tulane (4-4) for third time in head coach
Matt Riser's tenure.
Striking first, the Lions scratched across a run in the second.
Second baseman
Carson Crites, a junior from Amarillo, Texas, knocked a 1-out single to left-center. After stealing second base, he scored on
Webb Bobo's 2-out single through the right side.
Tulane tied the game up in the fourth, getting to Lion starter
Pat Cashman (1-0) for a run.
Designated hitter Jeremy Montalbano and right fielder Lex Kaplan singled back-to-back opening up the inning. They were sacrificed into scoring position and Montalbano scored on first baseman Grant Witherspoon's RBI single to right field.
Southeastern regained the lead in the fifth, taking advantage of three Green Wave errors in the inning to plate a pair of unearned runs.
In the sixth the Lion bats awoke.
Crites greeted reliever Tim Yandel with a solo home run to left center, his first of the season. After
Ryan Byers singled through the left side, Yandel walked Bobo and hit catcher
Chris Eades with a pitch.
Shortstop
Brennan Breaud, a freshman from Norco, Louisiana, drew a walk from new reliever Patrick Duester and
Jacob Seward knocked an RBI single before the first out of the inning was recorded.
Jameson Fisher chased Duester with a 1-out, 2-run single up the middle.
After Eric Steel, the third Tulane pitcher of the inning, retired the first batter he faced, Crites, Byers and Bobo strung together back-to-back-to-back singles to keep the inning marching forward.
In all, Southeastern sent 13 batters to the plate, scoring eight runs on seven hits in the sixth.
Crites enjoyed a 3-hit night, driving in a pair and scoring four runs. Byers and Bobo each had a pair of hits for the Lions. Fisher drove in three runs while Bobo also plated a pair.
Cashman earned the win, tossing a career-high 6.2 innings. The senior right-hander allowed three runs, all earned, scattering five hits and one walk. He struck out eight batters, falling one shy of tying his career high.
Josh Green,
Drew Avans and
Carlo Graffeo all followed Cashman to the hill for the Lions.
Southeastern embarks on its first road trip of the season this coming weekend, participating in East Carolina's Keith LeClair Classic in Greenville, North Carolina. The Lions will face the host Pirates, ranked No. 16 by D1Baseball.com, Maryland and Tennessee.
Southeastern 13, Tulane 4 (Mar 02, 2016 at Hammond, La.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Tulane.................... 000 100 201 - 4 11 4 (4-4)
Southeastern........ 010 028 02X - 13 12 1 (5-3)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Pitchers: Tulane - Massey, Ross; Yandel, Tim (6); Duester, Patrick (6); Steel, Eric (6); Issa, Brandon (7); France, J.P. (8) and Rogers, Jake; Burns, Cameron. Southeastern - Cashman, Pat; Green, Josh (7); Avans, Drew (8); Graffeo, Carlo (9) and Eades, Chris.
Win-Cashman, Pat (2-0) Loss-Massey, Ross (1-1) T-3:07 A-1710
HR SLU - Crites, Carson (1).
Weather: Sunny 61, SSE 4 mph
Yandel faced 4 batters in the 6th.
