NEW ORLEANS ? The University of New Orleans baseball team saw its starting pitcher pulled after getting only one out. The Privateers committed three errors leading to five unearned runs. UNO even walked six batters and had three wild pitches.
And at the end of the day, UNO matched its longest win streak in more than 20 years.
Ryan Eden went 3-for-5 with a home run and three runs scored, and Josh Vander Hey had a three-run home run as No. 29 UNO (35-13) took a 9-8 win at No. 28 Tulane on Tuesday night at Turchin Stadium.
The Privateers fought back from an early 4-1 deficit thanks to a good night from the bullpen, as UNO took the season series against Tulane (32-15-1) for the second straight season.
The Privateers won their 10th straight game heading into this weekend's Sun Belt Conference series at Arkansas-Little Rock. It is the program's longest win streak since 1987,
"The good part about this club lately is we're finding ways to win,” said UNO head coach Tom Walter. “We didn't play our best baseball tonight, but we didn't panic. We made the plays defensively late in the game, and I thought our experience really showed itself tonight."
Freshman Jake Henderson (5-1) got the win for the second straight game. The Beaumont, Texas product gave up two hits and four walks during a season-high 3 1/3 innings pitched. He allowed four runs, though only two were earned.
Junior Ryan O'Shea worked the final two frames to claim his 11th save.
Things looked bright early for UNO when Eden led off the game with a home run over the left-field wall.
But Tulane roughed up Privateer starter David Burch ? getting three hits and taking advantage of an error on Burch to score four in the bottom of the frame.
Walter went to reliever Randy Verdin after Tulane's Jared Dyer closed out Burch's night with an RBI single. After giving up the final run of the inning on an RBI single by Andrew Rogers, Verdin took command.
The sophomore held Tulane scoreless for the next two innings, and UNO tied the game in the third on an opposite-field, three-run home run by Vander Hey.
UNO took the lead for good in the fifth with another three-spot, benefiting from a Tulane error and an RBI single from Joey Butler.
Trailing 8-4 in the sixth, Tulane got three runs back before UNO grabbed a 9-7 lead in the seventh on Jeff Lanning's RBI single.
The Green Wave had runners on second and third in the eighth with one out but could only get one run after UNO reliever Stephen Whalen escaped major damage by drawing a sacrifice fly from Rodgers and getting Josh Prince to ground out.
O'Shea retired all six Tulane hitters he faced during the final two innings to close it.
Tulane starter Taylor Rogers (3-1) got the loss after surrendering four hits and five runs (four earned) in four innings. Sam Honeck had a two-run single and scored two runs for the Green Wave.
"Early in the year, when we didn't play our best, we'd still have a chance to win but we didn't get it done,” Walter said. “Now we're starting to win those games, and that's the sign of a good team.
"I thought Randy Verdin was the MVP for us tonight. He really settled us down. We were hoping to get two innings out of him tonight, but we had to extend him since David did not have his best stuff. He was huge for us."
UNO will kick off the weekend series at UALR at 6 p.m. on Friday.
