Feb. 24, 2002

Final Stats

NEW ORLEANS, La. - Freshman southpaw Ray Liotta struck out four in 6.1 strong innings on the mound to earn his first collegiate victory as the Tulane University baseball team defeated George Washington, 6-4, Sunday afternoon in the rubber match between the two teams at Turchin Stadium.

Liotta did give up three hits and three runs while walking five, but found a way to get out of a few jams to give the Green Wave their second victory over the Colonials in as many days to give Tulane a 2-1 series win against George Washington. With the win, Tulane improves to 7-3 on the year while GW falls to 3-5.

After giving up a leadoff triple and walking the second batter he faced, Liotta settled down and got a lot of ground balls as the Tulane defense turned three double plays on the afternoon. Liotta escaped the first inning with just one run on the board, but would not be as lucky in the seventh inning when he walked catcher Joe Michalski and gave up a single to designated hitter Ryan Roberson with one out.

It got interesting from there as Liotta left the game with a 5-1 lead and was relieved by sophomore Will Walter. Walter, however, promptly gave up a three-run homer to left to Colonial shortstop Jake Wald to cut the lead to one at 5-4. From there, Kelly Comarda came on and shut down the Colonial offense, giving up just a pair of walks in 2.1 scoreless innings.

The Green Wave added an insurance run in the home half of the seventh as catcher Brian Bormaster drew a leadoff walk, gave way to pinch runner Roydell Williams on the basepath. Williams advanced to third on a double by designated hitter Brooks Shankle, and centerfielder Jon Kaplan would bring Williams home on a sacrifice fly to left to provide the final score of the ballgame.

Comarda was in charge for most of the rest of the game. But with two out, Comarda gave up a walk to Wald to bring the tying run to the plate in the form of Travis Crowder. Head coach Rick Jones decided to put the ball into sophomore closer Joey Charron's left hand, and Charron responded with a strikeout to earn his first save of the 2002 season.

After falling behind 1-0, the Green Wave came back in the second with a pair of runs as sophomore first baseman Michael Aubrey drew a leadoff walk, advanced to third on a hit-and-run single by junior left fielder Aaron Feldman, and would score when Colonial third baseman Matt Krimmel's late throw to first sailed wide and got away from Jeff Fertitta.

Feldman would steal third base and come around to score on an RBI groundout by Gerald Clark to give the Green Wave the lead. Tulane would pad its advantage one inning later on a two-run homer by James Jurries, and added a single run in the fourth when Clark singled, advanced to third on a single by sophomore Anthony Giarratano and came around to score on a double-play ball off the bat of Bormaster.

George Washington's Avi Rodriguez (0-1), who got his first career start on Sunday, was saddled with the loss after giving up four runs (two earned) on four hits while striking out one and walking two in 3.0 innings. Team ace Greg Conden took the mound to start the fourth, but was met rudely as the first two batters he faced got base hits. Conden gave up four hits and two earned runs in 3.2 innings on the hill before giving way to Mike O'Connor who pitched 1.1 scoreless innings.

The Green Wave returns to action on Tuesday, Feb. 26 when they play host to in-state foe and nationally ranked Louisiana-Lafayette at 6:30 p.m. at Turchin Stadium. For ticket information, call the Tulane ticket office at (504) 861-WAVE or log onto the internet at www.tulanegreenwave.com.