NEW ORLEANS – The LMU baseball team dropped both games of a double header against Tulane on Saturday afternoon. They fell in the first game 14-4 before dropping the second game 10-0. 

 

 

The Lions fell into a 2-0 hole early before battling back in the second inning.  

 

DJ Ghiorso continued his torrid start to the season with a double that snuck inside the third base bag. Noah Malone followed by working a full count walk after Ghiorso advanced to third on a wild pitch. Malone would be put in motion and steal second easily during the ensuing at bat, with Ghiorso scoring on the wild pitch during the stolen base attempt. Robbie Ayers would drive Malone in easily with a triple drilled into the right center field gap. 

 

The Green Wave would respond and score eight unanswered runs to take a commanding lead. 

 

The Lions would get a pair back in the seventh courtesy of four hit batters. Ayers led off the inning with a hit by pitch. After a pair of strikeouts, Colby Wallace was hit by a pitch allowing Ayers to move up a base. Beau Ankeney once again came up with the big base hit with a single through the middle of the diamond to score Ayers from second. Devan Ornelas would be hit by a pitch during the following at bat and pinch hitter Kolton Freeman would drive in Wallace with a hit by pitch of his own. 

 

Tulane would go on to score four runs in the bottom of the eighth to put the game farther out of reach.  

 

 

The Lions offense was stifled in the nightcap.  

 

The Lions managed only three hits and left seven runners on base. 

 

Ghiorso was once again on base early with a one out double in the second inning. Freeman was hit by a pitch to give the Lions some semblance of a threat, but the inning ended on a ground ball double play. 

 

Freeman provided the other hit for the Lions, lacing a ball through the left side and hustling in to second base for a stand-up double.  

 

Freeman also logged the third hit for the Lions, a hard single through the left side to put runners on first and second. Joe Reid was robbed of extra bases one batter later after an impressive diving grab from the left fielder. 

 

The Lions went down five runs in the second inning and could not recover but did get promising debuts from a pair of freshmen pitchers. 

 

Johnny Casale made his debut out of the pen in the second inning and immediately got a third out. He gave up three runs in the bottom half of the third but did record his first career strikeout. 

 

Matt Moreno also came in to pitch the eighth for the Lions. The freshman was touching 93 in his warmups and threw a scoreless eighth while also notching his first career strikeout.  

 

The Lions are back in action on Wednesday, Feb. 25 on the road against UC Riverside.