Tulane to share field time with Zephyrs, open 38-game home schedule February 4 with Alumni Game

NEW ORLEANS, La.-The Tulane Green Wave baseball team, which spent much of the 2005 season as the nation’s number one team and advanced to the College World Series for the second time in school history, will play its 2006 home games at Zephyr Field in Metairie after flooding caused by Hurricane Katrina rendered its on-campus field unplayable for the season. 

With a capacity of 10,000, Zephyr Field will host the entire 38-game home schedule, beginning with the annual Alumni Game on Saturday, Feb. 4 at 1 p.m.  Tulane will also use the facility as a practice site beginning January 17. 

&#8220We’re extremely appreciative of the cooperation we have received from the Zephyrs and the Washington Nationals in allowing us to conduct our full home schedule at Zephyr Field,” said Tulane Athletic Director Rick Dickson.

&#8220It’s a first-class Triple A facility; our student-athletes have played there in the past and enjoyed great success. We look forward to welcoming all of our fans and as many New Orleans area residents as possible to watch Tulane Baseball at Zephyr Field this spring.”

&#8220The Zephyrs realize the importance of Tulane Baseball in New Orleans and are happy to host them this year,” said Zephyrs General Manager Mike Schline.

&#8220Not to be overlooked was the amount of cooperation we received from our parent club, the Washington Nationals.

&#8220With the amount of games that will be played here this year, the upkeep of the field is of utmost importance, and the Nationals have shown a tremendous amount of confidence in the Zephyr Field grounds crew’s ability to maintain Triple-A standards.”

Tulane head coach Rick Jones echoed the sentiments of Dickson and Schline.

&#8220This is a win-win for both the New Orleans Zephyrs and for Tulane Baseball,” Jones said.  &#8220We’re appreciative of the Washington Nationals for providing us with a tremendous venue and I believe we have an opportunity from an attendance standpoint, based on past history, to do some special things this spring.”

Zephyr Field has played host to 31 Green Wave baseball games since 1998, including the 2001 NCAA Super Regional series and a pair of Conference USA Baseball tournaments, in 1998 and 2001.

Last season, the Wave played four games – versus Arizona State, Cal State Fullerton, LSU and New Orleans – at the facility and averaged 8,580 fans, including a season-high 12,069 for the game versus LSU.

Renovation of Tulane’s existing on-campus baseball facility, Turchin Stadium, was well underway when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans on August 29. The upgrades were scheduled to be completed in February 2006, but the field was covered by several feet of water after levees in New Orleans failed in the storm’s aftermath.

The Green Wave, ranked as high as No. 12 in the nation in the preseason polls, will play 16 games versus preseason nationally ranked teams in 2006, including three-game home sets with No. 7 Rice (March 31-April 2), Tulane’s opponent in the 2005 NCAA Super Regional, and No. 11 Pepperdine (Feb. 24-26).  Tulane will play No. 20 LSU twice – in Baton Rouge on March 7 and at Zephyr Field on April 18 – and will face preseason No. 1 Texas and No. 19 TCU in the season-opening Minute Maid Classic in Houston.

Tulane opens its 2006 regular season home schedule Tuesday, Feb. 14 when it plays host to McNeese State at 6:30 p.m.  In addition to Pepperdine, the Wave will play non-conference home series versus Penn State (Feb. 17-19), Manhattan (March 3-5), Oral Roberts (March 10-12), South Alabama (March 17-18) and Stephen F. Austin (April 21-23).

In league play, Tulane will face UCF (April 14-16), Marshall (May 5-7) and Southern Miss (May 12-14) as well as Rice, in New Orleans.  Nicholls State (March 14 and April 11), UNO (March 21), Jackson State (March 28), Northwestern State (April 25) and McNeese State (Feb. 14 and May 2) will be the Green Wave’s guests in mid-week home games.

&#8220Our 2006 schedule is very attractive,” Jones said.  &#8220I can’t imagine a more-challenging opener with four Top 20 teams at the Minute Maid tournament and nationally-ranked Pepperdine comes in for three games in February.  Teams like South Alabama and Oral Roberts have multiple NCAA regional appearances and we’ll face our traditional mid-week line-up of in-state opponents. 

&#8220The new C-USA has been universally recognized as one of the top five baseball leagues in the country.  Of the nine schools, six have had tremendous postseason success. We’re looking forward to seeing several of those teams at Zephyr Field this season.”

As the Zephyrs season begins on April 6th at home, there will be overlap with Tulane’s season, and there will be seven days that the ballpark will host both Tulane and the Zephyrs.

Season tickets for the 2006 Tulane Baseball schedule will go on sale Wednesday, January 11.  Orders for renewals, or for new season tickets, can be made at www.TulaneGreenWave.com or by calling 504-247-1240 or 504-247-1241.

Renewal orders will be mailed this week.  See the attached release for detailed information on 2006 baseball season and single game tickets.