Tulane continues daunting road trip, heads to East Carolina for latest AAC tilt

(Tulane Athletics photo)

By Andrew Riedell

The Tulane Green Wave continue their stretch of facing the top half of the AAC this week, as they travel to Greenville, NC to square off with the East Carolina Pirates.

The current ECU Pirates are not like teams they've fielded before, as this team is not as talented as years past. Just because they are not like teams in the past, though, does not mean they are not good. In fact, this ECU team still sits towards the top of the AAC, and Tulane comes in still smarting from its worst loss of the season, the 25-7 series finale defeat to UTSA. Here is how the series may shake out this weekend.

Hitting:

Tulane's lineup has been getting more and more solidified lately, as we have seen Hugh Pinkney and Theo Bryant IV slot into the lineup and take great advantage of it this season. This weekend also is the first time Connor Rasmussen will play at ECU after transferring from there to Tulane last season. Rasmussen played in only 17 games his freshman year there, but he has been the best hitter in this Tulane lineup, so I can see him having a big weekend as well.

This Tulane lineup is going to be challenged by the ECU pitching staff, especially by Ethan Norby if he throws this weekend. The only thing for sure this weekend is that this Tulane lineup will be facing Brad Pruett, who has seen action both starting games and out of the bullpen. I just want to see this Tulane team continue to put up competitive at bats like they did overall during the series against UTSA.

Pitching:

Tulane will counter ECU with their usual rotation, Luc Fladda and Trey Cehajic leading the way, as they both performed really well in the UTSA series against one of the best lineups in the AAC.

This Tulane bullpen is still a big question mark, however, as they have struggled to put up zeroes on the board and get outs on the field. Relief pitching has walked a lot of people, and if Tulane wants to compete against a good ECU team, they are going to have to limit the free passes and execute their pitches.

If the Wave can get five or six innings out of Fladda and Cehajic, I think they can turn the game to Tayler Montiel and Michael Lombardi to close out those games. Other guys to look forward to stepping up this weekend are Carter Benbrook, who did not throw last weekend, and Julius Ejike Charles, who has been a reliable lefty for Tulane.

Sunday, I would expect it to be a bounce-back day for a lot of the bullpen arms that struggled last weekend, like Will Clements and Blaise Wilcenski. If they can string together outs and keep the Pirates off the base paths, they have the potential to win this series.

*****