New Orleans (WGNO) — Tulane is back in action to defend their American Athletic Conference regular season title, and looking to do so under new head coach, Travis Jewett.
“Every single day Coach Jewett’s providing a lot of energy,” said Tulane sophomore pitcher Ross Massey. “I think the players just feed off of that. He does a great job of getting our minds right and just letting us know how fortunate we are to play this game, and it’s a privilege to play for him.”
“Oh I love him,” said Tulane senior infielder Hunter Williams. “The guy brings so much energy to the table it’s unreal. I’ve never seen someone who’s so excited to be out here every day.”
2017 also brings a new turf playing surface to Greer Field, which includes a turf pitchers’ mound—a decision Coach Jewett made to help prevent rainy weather from hindering their play.
“Well I love the new turf,” Jewett said. “The reason is because I designed it. You know, but no. I just love it. A lot of thought went into it. You saw before, you get the rain here at times then you get the water and the clay runs off and then it gets into the turf and it calcifies and it gets hard and then it becomes not good and then it doesn’t look good and then I freak out.”
With all the changes surrounding Green Wave baseball in the last 7 months, they’re hoping to ground their program with a team that has made back-to-back appearances at NCAA Regionals, setting the bar even higher for this season.
“We’ve always got a chance to go further than last year,” Williams said. “Last year we gave it a good shot but that’s not what we wanted. The dream is never to just make it to a regional.”
“Experience– you can’t beat it, you know?” Jewett said. “These kids have been around. They have at bats. They’ve been to the post-season.”
Tulane begins the 2017 season at home when they host Army on Friday February 17th.