By: Tobey Schulman
After taking the series finale against UTSA, FAU got into the AAC tournament as the six seed. They’ll take on the four seeded Tulane Green Wave, a team that FAU lost a series at home to not too long ago. After a tough final stretch of the regular season for the Owls, they’ll need to turn things around in Clearwater if they want a bid into the NCAA tournament.
Tulane is coming off of a hot stretch to end the regular season. They swept one of the best teams in the country in East Carolina, and then took two of three from Charlotte to cap off their regular season conference schedule.
Their offense is full of players that can give the Owls trouble in this matchup. Brady Marget leads the way for the Green Wave with a .330 batting average, 50 RBI’s, and nine home runs. Connor Rasmussen and Gavin Schulz also hit for batting averages over .300 and are undoubtedly big threats in this Green Wave offense. Linn Jackson and Teo Banks despite not totalling stellar batting averages during the regular season, combined for 25 home runs and are a huge power threat to the FAU pitching staff.
The entire Owls offense needs to come ready to play to give this team a shot at going on a run. The bullpen have been solid as of late, but the offense needs to provide them the run support. Christian Adams, John Schroeder, Jalen DeBose, and Brando Leroux are some bats that have come up big for the Owls, especially in their struggles at the end of the year.
C.J. Williams will get the start vs. Tulane, and looks to bounce back from a few starts where he just didn’t have his best stuff. His last outing against Tulane was the only win the Owls took over the Green Wave, and was the first complete game shutout thrown by an Owls pitcher since 2016.
The Owls look to put this previous tough stretch behind them and go on a run in the conference tournament. An at-large bid is simply not in the equation for FAU, and they now control their own destiny in Clearwater, and hope to make a push for an AAC tournament title and a regional berth.