re: Tulane using their midweek starting pitcher against UNCW

Duester has been the midweek guy for most of the season, but he's also been one of our most consistent pitchers, and when "on," he has the best stuff on the staff. Merrill has been the Friday night starter, but I wouldn't say he's the "ace," and he has struggled with his control his last couple of starts. Also, everyone keeps saying they weren't impressed with Duester, and that's fine, but in the game in Baton Rouge he held LSU to 1 earned run in 5 innings on 4 hits with 3 Ks and 0 BBs. The bullpen imploded when he left the game. And, the real reason he's starting is because Wilmington's lineup is full of lefties, and Duester has the best stuff against lefties.

Lastly, for those saying we're going to go 2 and bbq or 1-2, we might, but I (and a lot of Tulane fans) love what Coach Pierce is doing, and has done all year. He's playing to win the regional, not to win the game. This is completely different than what Rick Jones did. Rick Jones did wonderful things for Tulane baseball, but he often managed scared in big situations (see our performances in Omaha). We're probably not going to do a lot in this regional, but we have a young team, made up of all of Jones' players. We're rebuilding. We haven't been to the postseason since 2008 after going 9 straight years from '98-06 (and again in '08) which included 2 trips to Omaha. Pierce has been to 15 straight postseasons as an assistant and head coach. I'm not sure if we'll get back to where we were in the early 2000s, but we're not going to be where we were from 2007-2014.

I think Tulane goes 2-2. Win today against UNCW, lose against LSU, win against UNCW again, lose to LSU.

I like seeing Tulane being competitive even though I cannot stand them as a program. Beating a good Tulane team just makes it even better in my opinion.