Shortstop Garrett Caunizaro (2) celebrates with teammates after Tulane player Gunner Wright (31) made a grand slam during their game against University of Central Florida on Friday May 21, 2010 in New Orleans at Turchin Stadium. (Imani Cheers/NYT Institute)

Tulane’s season looked all but over when designated hitter Gunner Wright stepped to the plate in the seventh inning, his team down three runs to the University of Central Florida. A loss would have eliminated the Green Wave from postseason play.

Game over, right? Season finished, right? Not exactly.

You have to understand this about Tulane: Fortunes can turn quickly.

Wright stepped out of the batter’s box and took a deep breath and started his on-deck routine: singing “Forgot about Dre,” by Eminem to himself.

“After I saw the slider on the first pitch,” Wright said of UCF reliever Matt Manning, “I knew he was coming with another one.”

And indeed he did. Wright turned the hanging slider into a grand slam, and the one-run deficit into a three-run lead. UCF scored two runs in the eighth, but the Green Wave was able to hold on for a 14-10 win in front of 2,571 fans at Turchin Stadium on Friday night.

The Green Wave (32-23, 10-13 in Conference USA) can still advance to the Conference USA Tournament next week with a win in Saturday’s season finale and a win by either East Carolina or Rice.

The team is just excited to have an opportunity at postseason baseball, given how things looked when UCF scored four runs in the sixth inning to take an 8-5 lead.

Instead of pressing with just three innings left to mount a comeback, the Green Wave showed a level of calm that impressed coach Rick Jones. When UCF reliever Joe Rogers entered the game in the seventh, Tulane hitters didn’t swing at the first pitch.

He watched ball one pass. Then ball two. Ball Three. And eventually, ball four.

“We had to have patient at-bats,” Jones said. “They were having some command issues.”

Still, Jones had a decision to make when Wright stepped to the plate. In recent games, Wright struggled against lefthanders like Rogers. But instead of playing the numbers, Jones left Wright in, who had already hit a home run in the game.

“The wind was blowing out, so we felt like maybe if he could get a hanger, and sure enough he got one,” Jones said. “He put a good swing on a mistake.”

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