Metairie, La.(March 3, 2006)-Manhattan southpaw Chris Cody scattered 10 hits and did his best
Houdini impression to escape a few jams as Manhattan upset #15 Tulane, 1-0, in game one of a three-game series Friday evening at Zephyr
Field. The win is the first for the Jaspers over a ranked opponent in over 20 years.
Cody allowed four walks and struck out 10, including the final two batters he faced. Tulane had its chances to get on the board throughout the day, but stranded 14 on the base paths, including seven in scoring position. With the
loss, Tulane falls to 8-4 on the year. Manhattan, meanwhile, improves to 1-0.
The Green Wave tallied 10 hits on the day, but could not get one when they needed it.
Manhattan gave Tulane some opportunities as well with three errors and a dropped foul
ball with two out, but Cody made a key pitch each time to keep the shutout in tact.
The one time Tulane seemed to get the big hit came in the seventh as sophomore second
baseman Brad Emaus roped a double that one-hopped the wall in centerfield. The Green Wave
had senior centerfielder Nathan Southard at second and sophomore shortstop Cat Everett on
first at the time courtesy of back-to-back singles by the pair, but Southard was caught
in a rundown between second following Emaus' twin-sacker for the second out of the frame.
Cody intentionally walked redshirt-freshman right fielder Warren McFadden - who had two
hits on the day - to load the bases, and got a come-back grounder to escape the inning
unscathed.
Tulane had another run cut down at the plate back in the second as the Green Wave had
bases loaded with only one out. A shallow fly ball off the bat of Southard - who went
3-for-5 - was caught by Mike Garcia in left, and Garcia's throw to the plate was in time to nail senior left fielder Matt Riser, who was trying to score from third.
While the Green Wave struggled to get the big hit all night, Manhattan got two of its
three hits in the top of the third when right fielder Nunzio Franzese led off with a
single, advanced the bases on a sacrifice bunt by shortstop Rene Ruiz and a groundout by
centerfielder Eric Nieto before Garcia drilled a double to the gap in left central to account for the game's only run.
The game, however, belonged to Cody. He flirted with disaster on a couple of occasions,
but when the Green Wave had runners on base, Cody limited Tulane to just four hits,
including a 2-for-10 showing with runners in scoring position.
"He's our No. 1 guy and we were going to ride him until he couldn't go any more,"
Manhattan head coach Kevin Leighton said following the win in his head coaching debut. "His pitch count got a little up there, but he kept wanting to go back out."
Cody's performance overshadowed another solid effort by Tulane starter Sean Morgan
(2-1), who gave up just one run on three hits while waking two and striking out eight in
as many innings. Sophomore right-hander Trey Martin pitched the ninth for Tulane, walking
one and striking out one in relief.
Tulane and Manhattan continue the series on Saturday at 2 p.m. and close out the weekend
on Sunday with first pitch slated for 1 p.m.