BATON ROUGE — Jon Kaplan went 3-for-4 and scored a pair of runs as Tulane broke open a tie game with a five-run eighth inning en route to a 8-3 victory over UNC Wilmington, in the second game of the Baton Rouge regional Friday night at Alex Box Stadium.
Tulane (44-17) advances to a winner’s bracket game with archrival LSU (41-19-1) at 3 p.m. CDT on Saturday. The Tigers, the No. 2 national seed in the tournament, got past Northeastern 11-8 in the first game on Friday.
UNCW (38-22), playing in its first post-season game since the 1975 NAIA World Series, when Tulane coach Rick Jones was a senior for the Seahawks, faces Northeastern (27-23) in an elimination game at 11 a.m. CDT Saturday.
The top of the eighth inning ended in controversy, as Aaron Smith’s sinking line drive in right field was ruled a catch by second base umpire Joe Cacciatore, although television replays revealed that Tulane right fielder Brian Bogusevic trapped the ball on one bounce.
The good fortune energized the Wave, which got a ground ball single from Brian Bormaster to start the inning before Kaplan bounced a ball inside the third base bag to move Bormaster to third, and the Wave catcher would score when the throw from left fielder Grawey skipped into the Tulane dugout.
Tony Giarratano singled home Kaplan on the next play to extend the Tulane lead to 5-3, and the Wave would remove all doubt as to the game’s outcome two batters later when Wes Swackhamer launched a three-run home run over the center-field fence.
Tommy Manzella went 3-for-4 for Tulane, while Swackhamer, Bogusevic and Bormaster had two hits each to lead a 15-hit attack for the Wave.
UNC Wilmington had a chance to break the tie in the seventh inning, as Brad Denson reached on an error by Tulane shortstop Giarratano, and then back-to-back- singles by Chip Grawey and Matt Wright loaded the bases for the Seahawks against Wave relief ace Joey Charron.
But Charron fought his way out of the jam, first striking out Jamie Hemingway and then inducing Matt Sutton to hit into an inning ending double play to leave the game tied.
Charron worked the final three innings of scoreless relief to improve his record to 4-7.
Tulane left three runners on base through the first two innings before grabbing a 1-0 lead when Kaplan led off the bottom of the third with his 10th home run of the year.
With one out, UNCW starter Brad Overton walked Michael Aubrey and Swackhamer before a Bogusevic base hit plated Aubrey for a 2-0 Green Wave lead. Overton then hit Tommy Manzella to load the bases, and he was immediately removed in favor of reliever Matt Carter.
Carter prevented the Green Wave from scoring more runs by striking out Nathan Southard and inducing Turner Brumby to hit into a fielder’s choice ground ball to end the inning.
The Seahawks scored their first NCAA Tournament run in the top of the fourth on Jason Schindler’s RBI single to score Wright, and then UNCW tied the game one inning later on a sacrifice fly by Wright that scored an unearned run.
Tulane briefly took the lead back at 3-2 when Nathan Southard’s long single off the wall scored Swackhamer, but the Seahawks tied the game right away on an RBI single by Smith that plated Schindler, who doubled two batters earlier.
UNCW (38-21) 000 111 000– 3 11 4
Tulane (43-17) 002 010 05x– 8 15 2
Brad Overton, Matt Carter (3), Will Hunt (6) and Pat Murphy; Billy Mohl, Matt Goebel (7), Joey Charron (7) and Brian Bormaster.
WP–Charron, 4-7.
LP–Hunt, 2-2.
2B–UNCW: Jason Schindler (9); Tulane: Jonny Kaplan (19).
HR–Tulane: Kaplan (10), Wes Swackhamer (9).
T–3:08.
A–7,341 (paid); 3,505 (actual).
2003 NCAA BATON ROUGE REGIONAL
GAME 2: TULANE vs. UNC-WILMINGTON
MAY 30, 2003
TULANE QUOTES
Head Coach Rick Jones
“I thought it was exactly the kind of ball game that it was. I thought it was a tough game and a hard-fought game. They had a senior-laden club and a senior-laden pitching staff. We made the plays when we had to. Billy Mohl gave us a tremendous effort on the mound. Joey (Charron) came in the seventh and had a huge strikeout and double play ball that (Tony) Giarrantano and (Tommy)Manzella turned was huge, no question about it. We strung together a couple of hits and we left a lot of guys on, but we kept playing. Finally we strung together five good at bats in the bottom of the eighth. Topped off with Swack’s (Wes Swackhamer) homerun obviously. It was a hard-fought ball game. I invested more in the bull\pen than I really wanted to. We were hoping to get to the eighth or ninth and not have to use Joey. But there was no doubt we had to do what we had to do.”
Designated Hitter Wes Swackhamer
“In that at bat I stayed with my same approach. Because, I didn’t do a good job in my previous at bat. That first pitch caught a portion of the plate and I put a good swing on it.”
Centerfielder Jon Kaplan
“Winning that game was great and they have a great club, but we expected to win this game. We are really looking forward to this game tomorrow. I am excited cause it is going to be a great game.”
GAME NOTES
Tulane registered its sixth victory in its previous seven games.
The Green Wave will face LSU in Game 4 of the Regional at 3 p.m. on Saturday.
A coin toss on Friday night determined that Tulane will be the home team against LSU in Game 4.
UNC-WILMINGTON QUOTES
Head Coach Mark Scalf
“I felt like we gave ourselves an opportunity to win the ball game. I don’t think that there’s any doubt about that. The five-run inning late, the six hits that worked their way through the infield displayed that this is a game of inches. Two innings prior to that, Matt Sutton hits a ground ball hard to short for a 6-4-3 (double play) to end the inning with the bases loaded. In the previous inning, Aaron (Smith) hits the ball to right field where if the guy doesn’t make a great play on it, then it’s a double and a chance to score with two outs and have us take the lead in the top of the eighth instead of them going up in the bottom half.”
“I have to give Tulane credit. (Joey) Charron did a great job coming out of the bullpen and he was tough. He throws strikes, he changes speeds and he was very good today.”
First Baseman Matt Wright
“Basically, it’s frustrating for us to come down here (and lose the first game). We wanted to make a statement early. Like coach (Scalf) said, we had every opportunity to do that and we didn’t quite do it. This is a great ballpark to play in with the fans behind us for the majority of the game. Basically, we want to be in the championship game come Sunday.”
Designated Hitter Jason Schindler
“Well, like Matt (Wright) just said, we’re very disappointed right now. We came into today knowing that the atmosphere was going to be different. I think that maybe it got to us at first. It took us a while to settle down, but as coach (Scalf) said, we had a few opportunities for us to score and we didn’t take advantage of them. Overall, I don’t think that we played baseball like I know we know how to play.”
Shortstop Aaron Smith
“Yeah, I thought we competed pretty well today. It’s just frustrating because we look at it and we think that we can beat anybody in the nation, and we come in here and have a few errors that cost us a few runs and we lose the ball game. We play Northeastern tomorrow and hopefully it will be a big win and then we’ll play the winner (of the afternoon game) tomorrow night.”
GAME NOTES
UNC-Wilmington made its first NCAA Tournament appearance on Friday.
The Seahawks will face Northeastern in Game 3 of the Regional on Saturday at 11 a.m.
Tulane’s Head Coach Rick Jones is a 1975 graduate of UNC-Wilmington.
The loss proved to be the Seahawks’ third straight after falling to Virginia Commonwealth and George Mason in the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament.