No. 16 Green Wave Gets Rollin' Against In-State Foe SE Louisiana

CUSA Fans Tulane sports correspondent Seth Weitz provides a Tulane baseball update.

Seven months after bowing out of the Oxford Regional to champion Ole Miss with a 12-4 defeat, the Tulane Green Wave open the 2007 season against in-state rival Southeastern Louisiana in a unique three game series. The two teams will meet Friday and Sunday at Zephyr Field in Metairie and Saturday in Hammond on the campus of SLU.

The Greenies and Lions usually play mid-week games but will meet on the weekend for the first time in recent memory. Tulane leads the all-time series with SLU 57-25 and Green Wave skipper Rick Jones, who opens the season with 566 career wins at Tulane, is 17-5 against the Lions.

Heading into the season, Tulane was named the highest rated program on the rise by Baseball America over the past 9 years. Tulane was ranked #82 by Baseball America in 1997 and is now ranked #16 overall by the national publication.

Southeastern Louisiana comes into the 2007 campaign picked to finish fourth in the Southland Conference’s East Division behind McNeese State, Lamar and Northwestern State. Last season the Lions finished 11 th overall in the SLC and did not qualify for the conference postseason tournament.

SLU was 23-32 in 2006, hitting .269 as a team with only 29 HR. As a team, the Lions had an ERA of 4.98 and opponents hit .298 against them. The Lions did not face Tulane last year and have not faced the Greenies since 2003 when Tulane swept the Lions, winning 7-1 in New Orleans and 8-4 in Baton Rouge in a game moved from Hammond due to poor field conditions.

The Lions return five position starters from 2006, including their leading hitter Richard Imhoff, who hit .309 and tied for second on the team with 4 HR. Imhoff played shortstop last year, but has since moved to second base for the 2007 campaign. While neither the Lions nor the Green Wave have released their pitching rotation for the weekend, the Lions return three hurlers who had seven or more starts last season. Southpaw Wade Miley paced the Lions in 2006 with 14 starts and was 6-7 with a 5.92 ERA. Chris Province was 4-7 with a 4.37 ERA and 5 saves while Chris Cappo finished 2-3 with a 4.81 ERA.