NEW ORLEANS – The Tulane University baseball team (23-14, 12-2 AAC) saw its 12-game winning streak come to an end in a 7-4 setback to Houston (16-22, 4-11 AAC) in the third game of the American Athletic Conference series on Saturday evening at Greer Field at Turchin Stadium.
Senior right-hander Trent Johnson fired six innings of scoreless relief while surrendering just four hits and no walks while striking out three. Bennett Lee collected three hits, while Chase Engelhard added two more and three RBI.
The Green Wave lit up the scoreboard in the bottom of the first inning thanks to a one-out single by Jacob LaPrairie. Two batters later, he came around to score on an RBI single through the left side off the bat of Engelhard to put the Wave in front, 1-0.
The Cougars’ offense broke out in the top of the third by sending 11 batters to the plate and scoring seven runs while chasing Green Wave starting pitcher Donovan Benoit with two outs in the frame.
Tulane chipped away at the deficit with an Engelhard RBI on a fielder’s choice in the bottom of the third and a solo home run by Luis Aviles in the fourth.
Engelhard drove in his third run on a groundout in the seventh inning to pull within three, but the offense went quiet until the bottom of the ninth.
With two outs, Lee and Engelhard hit back-to-back singles, before Frankie Niemann drew a walk to load the bases to put the go-ahead run at the plate, Unfortunately, Aviles was retired on strikes, as the Cougars held on.
Starting pitcher Ben Sears (2-3) earned the win for Houston on the mound.
{Press release courtesy of Tulane Athletics}
