Tulane Baseball Soaring With Top Stat in Nation After Undefeated Start
The Tulane Green Wave baseball team is off to a stellar start in the 2025 season with the first 4-0 start for the program since 2022.
Tulane also leads college baseball in a key metric as a result of their latest victory.
After a comeback 5-3 road win over the 4-1 Southeastern Louisiana Lions, the Green Wave lead the nation in Rating Percentage Index (RPI) as released by Warren Nolan.
RPI is a formula that ranks a team’s wins and losses against strength of schedule, weighing their Division I winning percentage, that of their opponents, and the previous teams those opponents have faced.
Tulane is currently the top RPI team in the country, and that grit showed in their Wednesday victory.
Carter Benbrook earned the win against the Lions through two innings with three strikeouts, and Benbrook, along with the five relievers, pitched 8.2 scoreless innings. Relievers Garrett Payne, Gavin Smith, Taylor Montiel, Wes Burton, and Michael Lombardi and Benbrook totaled 16 strikeouts.
It was a memorable appearance for Burton, who missed all of the 2024 season due to injury. In his debut for the Green Wave, Burton threw a scoreless inning with a strikeout. Lombardi followed with five strikeouts that earned him his first save of the season.
Lombardi led the hitters with a sacrifice fly and two RBIs; Jackson Linn scored two runs; Kaikea Harrison totaled a pair, including the game winner; and Connor Rasmussen finished off with a pair of hits. Lombardi recorded one of three sacrifice hits—it was an unselfish outing for the team with five walks.
That type of selfless play is in line with the player-led culture head coach Jay Uhlman spoke with Tulane on Sports Illustrated about last November after signing his contract extension.
“When we first started, it was definitely coach-led,” Uhlman said. “We were trying to establish what our expectations were, what the standards were, how we were going to operate, and so there were growing pains there. You always hope as a coach you can get to the point where it is player-led. I think the early returns for me this fall have been exactly what you said. I think we're seeing our players do more of the heavy lifting when it comes to, Hey, we don't do that here, or This isn't how we need it to be; our energy's not good.”
Uhlman acknowledged that in the past, he and other assistant coaches had to hold that torch and keep players accountable. He sensed a palpable change several months ago that’s come to fruition in their 4-0 start.
“Now, I think you have it,” Uhlman continued. “The groundwater is coming to the top a little bit more with our players, and I think for me it's been our most productive fall in three years-which guarantees you nothing, as you guys know, but I do really like where this group is at.”
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Maddy Hudak is the deputy editor for Tulane on Sports Illustrated and the radio sideline reporter for their football team. Maddy is an alumnus of Tulane University, and graduated in 2016 with a degree in psychology. She went on to obtain a Master of Legal Studies while working as a research coordinator at the VA Hospital, and in jury consulting. During this time, Maddy began covering the New Orleans Saints with SB Nation, and USA Today. She moved to New Orleans in 2021 to pursue a career in sports and became Tulane's sideline reporter that season. She enters her fourth year with the team now covering the program on Sports Illustrated, and will use insights from features and interviews in the live radio broadcast. You can follow her on X at @MaddyHudak_94, or if you have any questions or comments, she can be reached via email at maddy.hudak1@gmail.com