BOXSCORE: at Tulane

NEW ORLEANS - The Northern Colorado baseball team was swept in a three-game series by Tulane, with the finale on Sunday ending in a lopsided, 20-6 affair. NC is now 7-14 on the year, while the Green Wave are 14-9.

Senior Andy Mees and Tyler Borzileri, who came in late as a pinch hitter, both had two hits each as the Bears scored six runs on 11 hits with one error. Tulane scored 20 runs on 20 hits and also committed an error.

Senior Kevin Sandberg took the loss on the hill. He pitched 1.2 innings, allowing eight runs on nine hits with two walks and one strikeout. Ty Jacobs, Eric Skufca, Brian Sizemore and Dylan Smith also all saw action on the mound. Twelve of the Green Wave's 20 hits went for extra bases on the afternoon, including five home runs, whereas just two of the Bears' 11 hits went for more than a single. Senior Phil Santucci, who went 1-for-3, scored half of the team's runs.

Back-to-back home runs in the bottom of the first helped Tulane to an early 3-0 lead. The Green Wave then exploded for five runs on seven hits for the 8-0 lead, knocking Sandberg out of the game in the second inning.

Three straight singles by Santucci, Jarod Berggren and Adam Hilker broke the Bears into the scoring column in the top of the third. Junior Mike Raudenbush earned his second walk of the game to load the bases and a groundout by Mees moved everyone up 90 feet and gave NC its second run of the afternoon. Sandberg hit a sacrifice fly to right field for the Bears' third run.

Tulane immediately answered, scoring four in the bottom half of the frame to extend its lead to nine, 12-3.

With Hilker and Santucci on first and second, respectively, Raudenbush singled through the left side to give the Bears a run in the fourth but Tulane answered with one in the bottom of the frame for the 13-4 tally and scored one more in the fifth for a 10-run advantage, 14-4.

Santucci reached on a throwing error, moved to second on a wild pitch and scored on a pinch-hit single by Borzileri in the top of the sixth and for the first time all day, the Bears held the Green Wave scoreless in the bottom half, making the score 14-5.

The Bears notched another run in the top of the seventh when Raudenbush scored on a single by Seth Budde and Tulane counter-punched with a three-run home run to extend the lead to 11, 17-6.

Another home run aided the Green Wave in three runs in the eighth, making the score 20-6 for the series sweep.

Northern Colorado now travels north to Lincoln to start a two-game set with the Nebraska Cornhuskers on Tuesday. The Bears then return home for a four-game series with Houston Baptist beginning on Friday.