Wave Washes Over St. Joe's: 27-3

Green Wave plates 14 runs in the fourth to claim series win. Jonny Kaplan hits second homer of the year.

The weather was cold and the skies were cloudy, but the Green Wave bats were hot and the defense was flawless as the Tulane University baseball team defeated St. Joseph's 27-3 Saturday afternoon at Turchin Stadium.

Tulane was able to take advantage of 10 errors by the Hawks and tallied 19 hits for the day, including multiple hit performances by Jonny Kaplan, Michael Aubrey, James Burgess, Brian Bogusevic and Matt Mann. Making the first start of his collegiate career, freshman Billy Mohl struck out nine while allowing six singles and no walks five shutout innings spearhead the victory.

With the win, Tulane improves to 2-0 on the year while St. Joseph's falls to 0-2. The two teams will close out the weekend series on Sunday with first pitch slated for noon.

Tulane got things going early on when Aubrey scored Kaplan from third in the bottom of the first, and the Green Wave plated a pair in the second when Nathan Southard and Tommy Manzella scored on an error and groundout, respectively.

After a scoreless third, Kaplan helped the home team blow the game wide open with a three-run homer as Tulane sent 18 batters to the plate, tallied eight hits and took advantage of four Hawk errors to score 14 runs in the frame to take an insurmountable 18-0 lead. From there, head coach Rick Jones took advantage of the opportunity to play some his reserves and the Green Wave backups combined to tally eight hits, two walks and eight RBI in the lopsided win.

While the Green Wave bats were producing runs, Tulane's pitching was equally as effective as Mohl tossed a gem to earn his first career win. Fellow freshman Brandon Gomes had an equally effective outing, allowing two runs on five hits while striking out five in three solid innings, and junior Keith Hennegan - making his first appearance since the 2001 season - pitched a one-run ninth to end the contest.

Aubrey led all players with three hits in four trips to the plate with an RBI and two runs scored. Kaplan, meanwhile, went 2-for-2 with a homer, two walks, three RBI and two stolen bases.

St. Joseph's starter Bill McCollum was not as lucky as he gave up nine runs- six earned - on four hits with five walks and no strikeouts in three-plus innings. Releiver Al Braun did not fare much better and did not get a lot of help from his defense as he allowed 11 runs - five earned- on six hits in one-plus inning.

Following this weekend's series, Tulane gets back in action on Friday, Feb. 14 when the Green Wave opens a three-game slate against visiting George Mason at 6:30 p.m. at Turchin Stadium.