CLEARWATER, Fla. — With an 8-5 loss to top-seeded East Carolina Saturday morning, the Tulane Green Wave are eliminated from the 2022 American Athletics Conference Tournament.
Back-to-back home runs from Bennett Lee and Luis Aviles opened Tulane’s elimination bout with ECU.
The Wave held an early 4-0 lead on 6 hits and three home runs in the first two innings.
Meanwhile Tulane pitcher Dylan Carmouche, who started Tuesday against Cincinnati, was dealing through 3.1 innings with 4 strikeouts and just 1 earned run.
“You try to map it out again and I was thinking man if we get two innings out of him, I’d feel really good, but the ball was coming out well and he was keeping them off balance like he always does. For him to get us where he got us was a really big lift. Not surprised from his competitive standpoint but surprised because we would never ask him to go off three days rest,” says Tulane interim head baseball coach Jay Uhlman.
In the 4th, an error led to an RBI double that cut the Tulane lead to 2, marking the end of Carmouche’s day on the mound.
“I’ve seen that script before. We don’t make a play behind him, he’s got a lead and then all of a sudden the pitch is up out over the plate and somebody rams a ball into the gap. For that short of rest and the pitches and the performance that he gave us, I did not want him to leave ultimately with an awful taste in his mouth. I wanted to pass the ball to Hoff and let him get us out of that,” says Uhlman.
East Carolina would plate 2 more runs after his exit in the 4th, adding 4 more over the next 3 innings.
Tulane cut the lead to 3 in the 9th, but with two outs and bases loaded a strikeout ends their season.
“To be in position and do what they did in this tournament when nobody else gave them a chance. Lame duck coaching staff or poor players, this and that. I am so stinking proud of these guys. They weathered the storm and showed their toughness. Toughness isn’t lining up and punching a guy in the face. It’s being able to take a blow mentally and keep going and that’s what these guys did. I hope the fans and people that support our baseball program are proud of these guys because they gave everything they had to that institution and our baseball program,” says Uhlman.
Tulane ends the season with a 33-26-1 record.