Feb. 10, 2002

Final Stats

MALIBU, Calif. - Senior third baseman James Juries went 5-for-5 with two home runs and three RBI, and the Green Wave rallied to score four runs in the ninth inning to take a 12-8 victory over Pepperdine Sunday afternoon at Eddy D. Field Stadium.

With the score knotted at 8-8 after eight complete innings, the first four Tulane batters got a hit, including a two RBI triple by sophomore Michael Aubrey and an RBI double by junior Aaron Feldman, to spark the rally. From there, it was all Joey Charron as the sophomore reliever retired the side in order to give the Green Wave their first win of the 2002 season.

"I was really proud of the way our kids battled back and salvage a win against Pepperdine this weekend," head coach Rick Jones said. "We've got a lot of work to do, but we showed a lot of character as a club late yesterday and throughout the day today."

For the third straight game, Tulane outhit its opponent - tallying 16 hits to Pepperdine's 11 - and four Tulane players belted home runs in the victory. Jurries led all players with five hits, Feldman went 4-for-5 with a homer, a double and two RBI, and Aubrey had a home run, a triple and four RBI with the bat while pitching 7.0 solid innings on the hill.

Things got off to a rocky start for the Green Wave as the first four Pepperdine players reached base on an error and a pair of hits, respectively, and left fielder Chris Kelly hit a wind-aided grand slam to centerfield to put the Waves up 4-0 with nobody out.

Aubrey got out of the inning, but gave up a pair of runs in the second to give the host Waves a 6-0 lead. From there, though, Aubrey settled down and would not give up another run until the eighth when he his pitch count eclipsed 125 tosses.

Trailing 6-1 after five, the Tulane offense woke up and began to resemble the come-back team of a year ago. With one out, Jurries hit a single and Aubrey helped his cause with a home run to center to cut the lead to three. After a Feldman single one at-bat later, redshirt freshman Gerald Clark launched home run to left to bring the Green Wave to within one.

Then, with two outs in the sixth, sophomore shortstop Anthony Giarratano hit a single before Jurries hit his second homer of the day to give the Green Wave a 7-6 lead.

Tulane took an 8-6 advantage in the eighth when Feldman smashed a leadoff homer to center, but Pepperdine would come back to tie things up in the home half of the inning.

Charron replaced Aubrey with one on and with nobody out in the eighth, but Charron could not hold the lead as the reliever gave up a pair of hits, including a two-RBI single by Ty Harper to tie things up and set up the ninth inning heroics.

Charron earned his first win of the year after shutting down the Waves in the bottom of the ninth to seal Tulane's first win. Pepperdine reliever Derek Mills was saddled with the loss after giving up five runs and seven hits in 2.0 innings of work.

The Green Wave returns to action on Friday, Feb. 15 when Tulane plays host to the Villanova Wildcats in the first of a three-game series at Turchin Stadium. For ticket information, call the Tulane ticket office at (504) 861-WAVE or log onto the internet at www.tulanegreenwave.com.