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The Green Wave's Nathan Southard propelled Tulane into the Conference USA Championship game on Saturday with a three home run performance that sets Tulane up with a championship game matchup against TCU on Sunday.

Southard blasted his three home runs against pitcher Brad Lincoln of Houston, on Saturday in Mississippi, taking round trips in his first three plate appearances. Southard was joined in the home run derby by freshman Brad Emaus who contributed a grand slam in the 10-1 win.
After their 16-3 win over East Carolina on Thursday, the Green Wave is looking good, having defeated their last three tournament opponents by a score of 34-10 justifying their top ranking with their performance in the tournament so far. The Tulane baseball team has now delivered a total of 12 home runs and 63 total runs in the tournament.

Tulane, which is ranked No. 2 by Baseball America and No. 1 by Collegiate Baseball, will play TCU in the championship game on Sunday. This will make for the sixth time Tulane has gone to the championship and will will give them the chance to win the whole thing for the fifth time. Texac Christian is coming into the match up as the defending champion. With his performance on Saturday, Southard tied the school's record for home runs in a single game, originally set by Mike Pursell against the upstate rival LSU Tigers in 1998. He also tied the Conference USA record for home runs in a game which was set by AB's Jeff Bell in 1996.

Southard said after the game that he was just offered some good pitches to hit and took advantage of them, an understatement to say the least. He got started early in the game, taking Lincoln's second pitch thrown, a fastball, and cranking it out over the left field fence for his first home run of the game. Coming up to the plate again in the third inning, Southard said he was thinking that Lincoln would avoid throwing him another fastball over the middle, so he was on the lookout for a curve ball, which he got. That curve ball gave Southard his second home run of the game as he also drove in another runner, giving the Green Wave a 3-1 lead in the game.
Back at the plate as the lead off batter in the fifth inning, Southard took another curve ball over the left field fence on the fifth pitch.

Tulane head coach Rick Jones was happy with his team's performance, saying that they had played as complete a game as he thought they could, pointing out that Southard had played a very memorable game.
Oddly, Southard said after the game that his third home run was a mistake. Facing Lincoln with two strikes on him, Southard was simply attempting to stay in the batters box and keep hitting, but that Lincoln had left the ball hanging a little bit too long and he got the opportunity to turn on the pitch, resulting in the home run.
Obviously trying to avoid a four home run performance by Southard, Lincoln allowed the center fielder a free base in his next at bat, putting him on in a walk. The walk loaded the base for Tulane, and at that point Emaus had the plate set and took full advantage of it, driving the ball over the fence for the grand slam, Emaus' third of the season and his 13th home run of the year. Emaus had a team leading 5 RBI in the game, but said when he hit the grand slam he had no idea that the ball had gone over, and didn't realize it was a grand slam until he had already reached first base. The grand slam was set up by an error on Houston's second baseman, who allowed a ball to get past him.

The third home run by Southard gave Tulane a 4-1 lead. Because of that lead, Tulane's pitcher, Micah Owings was able to be much more relaxed on the mound an take a few chances. Owings was having a good game up to that point anyway, allowing a home run in the first inning before settling down and throwing well over the course of the next few trips to the mound. Oddly enough, Houston's solo run was a home run shot hit by Lincoln, the pitcher that Southard ripped up all day. Owings was able to rack up a total of nine strikeouts, bringing his total for the season to 117. He faced 27 batters on the day, throwing seven inning before giving way to relief.
Rick Jones said after the game that Owings had his fastball working, and good command of his change up, allowing Owings to keep Houston's batters off balance the whole game. and staying ahead in the count.