Owls Take Two from Tulane on Marathon Saturday

Friday, May 2

New Orleans, La.

7:30 p.m.

Florida Atlantic

30-15, 11-8

Tulane

27-19, 10-9

Florida Atlantic

Tulane Green Wave

5/4/2025 1:47:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score 1 Box Score 2

NEW ORLEANS, La. – Florida Atlantic baseball won the first two games of its three-game series against Tulane on Saturday in New Orleans. A long day at the ballpark included the last four innings of a 16-12 victory that began on Friday but was suspended until Saturday due to weather. The Owls (31-15, 12-8) then rallied from a six-run deficit to knock off the Green Wave (27-20, 10-10) in the nightcap by a 10-8 final.

GAME ONE

Friday's series opener lasted one inning before a two-hour and 35-minute weather delay caused a halt to play. When the game resumed, the Owls exploded for nine runs in the top of the second inning, highlighted by a grand slam off the bat of Nick Romano.

Tulane chipped away and cut a 10-3 FAU lead down to 10-8 with a five-run third inning. The Owls reasserted their dominance with six runs in the fifth. The Green Wave responded with four runs in the ensuing half-inning before weather interfered again. This time, the game was suspended until Saturday afternoon.

After the teams combined for 28 runs in five innings on Friday, neither side could generate offense when play resumed 15 hours later. Carter Holjes held Tulane scoreless in the sixth and seventh innings, and MJ Bollinger followed suit in the eighth and ninth to finish off a four-run victory.

GAME TWO

Tulane opened the scoring in game two with a three-run second inning. They added one in the third and three more in the fourth to lead 7-1 entering the fifth inning.

The Owls cut into the deficit with two runs in the fifth. With Danny Baez on second, a Marshall Lipsey bunt resulted in a wild throw from Tulane pitcher Trey Cehajic. Baez scored on the play, and Lipsey followed him across home plate two batters later when Romano lined a base hit up the middle. Emilio Gonzalez launched a two-run home run in the sixth to bring the Owls another two runs closer (8-5).

Fifth-year senior reliever Braden Ostrander – in his first appearance on the mound in over a month – held Tulane scoreless in the sixth and seventh frames. That set the stage for the offense to complete the comeback in the eighth.

Ayden Garcia sparked a rally with a leadoff single. Lipsey and John Martinez each singled with two outs to load the bases for John Schroeder. The senior teed off on a 1-1 pitch and sent it off the light pole beyond the left field wall for a go-ahead grand slam. Jake Millan would later contribute an opposite-field RBI single to stretch the lead to 10-8.

Now leading for the first time in the game and needing six outs, the Owls turned to an unconventional option for the late innings. Friday night starter Trey Beard threw just 15 pitches in the series opener, making him available to come out of the bullpen if needed on Saturday. Beard struck out two and worked around a two-out double in the eighth inning.

In the ninth, he retired the first two batters in short order. Tulane then strung together three consecutive singles to load the bases and put the winning run at first base. A mound visit from pitching coach Jordan Tabakman re-centered Beard, who proceeded to strike out Tulane's Tanner Chun on three pitches and end the Green Wave's hopes of a dramatic finish.

THE BATS

The Florida Atlantic offense has recorded 33 hits and 26 runs in the first two games of the series.
Four different Owls have five hits in the series – Schroeder, Lipsey, Martinez, and Brando Leroux.
Romano is 4-for-9 in the series. He had five RBI in the series opener and added another in game two.
Romano's grand slam on Friday was his second grand slam in the last 10 games.
Lipsey was 4-for-4 and reached base six times in the series opener

THE ARMS

With his second strikeout in the eighth inning of game two, Beard became the first Owls' pitcher since 2013 (Austin Gomber) to record 100 strikeouts in a season.
He finished with four strikeouts in his two innings of work. The save was the first of his career in just his second relief appearance.
Ostrander earned the win in the nightcap to improve to 2-0.

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