Austin Peay Governors Baseball releases 2013 Schedule

APSU Sports: Austin Peay Baseball

Clarksville, TN – Eleven games against six teams that qualified for the 2012 NCAA Baseball Championship highlight the Austin Peay State University baseball schedule, released Tuesday, by head coach Gary McClure.

Austin Peay, which finished as the Eugene Regional runner up in last season’s NCAA tournament, will face six NCAA participants this season with four slated to visit Clarksville.

The Governors will play Indiana State in a home-and-home series, host Michigan State in a three-game series and host Creighton as part of the 2013 Riverview Inn Classic. APSU also will visit both Mississippi State and Kentucky in a return of Southeastern Conference opponents to its schedule. In addition, the Govs will host Belmont, the newest member of the Ohio Valley Conference series, in a three-game series.

“Scheduling is done so far in advance nowadays, so you never really know for sure how your competition will be from year to year,” said McClure. “With that said, I like how it has worked out this year that we will play 11 games against six teams that made the NCAA tournament last season.  We look forward to the challenge, but have a lot of work to do between now and then.”

The Govs will play 33 games at Raymond C. Hand Park in 2013, including 15 of their first 17 contests. The campaign opens with a three-game series against Iowa, February 15th-17th. Austin Peay also will host Illinois State (February 22nd-24th) and Michigan State (March 1st-3rd) in three-game weekend series at home.

The following weekend Austin Peay will host 2013 Riverview Inn Classic, March 8th-10th, which will bring Creighton, Milwaukee and UALR to Raymond C. Hand Park for a round-robin event. The key matchup will pit Missouri Valley Conference tournament champion Creighton against Austin Peay in a 3:30pm, March 9th contest.

Austin Peay will begin defense of its back-to-back Ohio Valley Conference regular-season titles when it travels to Eastern Illinois, March 15th-17th. The Govs’ road OVC slate also features an Easter weekend trip to Murray State (March 28th-30th) as well as excursions to Southeast Missouri (April 12th-14th), Eastern Kentucky (April 26th-28th) and UT Martin (May 10th-12th).

The Govs will open the home portion of their OVC schedule when they host Jacksonville State, March 22nd-24th. APSU’s home conference weekends will include Tennessee Tech (April 5th-7th), Belmont (April 19th-21st), Morehead State (May 3rd-5th) and the regular-season finale against SIU Edwardsville (May 16th-18th).

Midweek offerings will provide home-and-home series against Evansville, Indiana State, Lipscomb, Middle Tennessee, Southern Illinois and Western Kentucky. In addition, the Govs will travel to both Mississippi State (March 26th) and Kentucky (April 9th). A late trip to Memphis, May 14th, will wrap up the Govs non-conference slate.

“This year’s schedule will be extremely tough, for various reasons,” said McClure. “First, when looking ahead to this season we knew it would be a year we would have several talented veteran players returning who had been through some big games. So, it was my hope that we could handle the task of playing a very competitive schedule.

“Secondly, we always try to challenge our team by playing a very strong schedule in hopes that we will be battle tested when our conference season begins.”

Following the regular-season finale, the OVC tournament will be hosted May 22nd-26th at Pringles Park in Jackson, Tennessee. It will be the fourth consecutive season the event has been hosted at the home of the Jackson Generals, the AA affiliate of the Seattle Mariners.

“We believe if we can do well against the type of schedule we have this year our RPI has a chance to rise to the level where we can possibly get an at-large bid if needed,” McClure said. “More importantly we will have the opportunity to put ourselves in a position for a higher seed should we qualify for the NCAA Tournament again.”

Austin Peay returns the bulk of a team that won both the OVC regular-season and tournament titles in 2012, the second consecutive year it swept the league’s titles. Among the returnees will be infielder Jordan Hankins, who was a second-team ABCA All-South Region and first-team All-OVC selection. Second-team All-OVC outfielder Cody Hudson also returns. In addition, infielder Reed Harper, outfielder Rolando Gautier and pitcher Kacy Kemmer, each OVC all-tournament picks, return.

Notes

Austin Peay will play eight teams (for a total of 16 games) that finished last season ranked among the Top 100 in the NCAA’s final RPI rankings: Kentucky (18), Mississippi State (22), Michigan State (51), Indiana State (54), Illinois State (58), Belmont (67), Memphis (78) and Evansville (85). Austin Peay finished the season ranked 112th RPI.

The Govs schedule posted a combined 737-692 (.515) record last season. The non-conference portion of that slate combined for a 475-389 (.550) record.

2013 Governors Baseball Schedule

Date Opponent Location Time (CT) Media 2012 Red-White World Series Fri, Nov 02 RWWS Game 1 Clarksville, Tenn. 5:00 p.m. Sat, Nov 03 RWWS Game 2 Clarksville, Tenn. 11:00 a.m. Sun, Nov 04 RWWS Game 3 Clarksville, Tenn. 1:00 p.m. Wed, Nov 07 RWWS Game 4 Clarksville, Tenn. 4:00 p.m. Thu, Nov 08 RWWS Game 5 Clarksville, Tenn. 4:00 p.m. Fri, Feb 15 Iowa Clarksville, Tenn. 3:00 p.m. Sat, Feb 16 Iowa Clarksville, Tenn. 1:00 p.m. Sun, Feb 17 Iowa Clarksville, Tenn. 1:00 p.m. Tue, Feb 19 Middle Tennessee at Murfreesboro, Tenn. 3:00 p.m. Fri, Feb 22 Illinois State Clarksville, Tenn. 3:00 p.m. Sat, Feb 23 Illinois State Clarksville, Tenn. 1:00 p.m. Sun, Feb 24 Illinois State Clarksville, Tenn. 1:00 p.m. Tue, Feb 26 Southern Illinois Clarksville, Tenn. 3:00 p.m. Wed, Feb 27 Indiana State Clarksville, Tenn. 3:00 p.m. Fri, Mar 01 Michigan State Clarksville, Tenn. 3:00 p.m. Sat, Mar 02 Michigan State Clarksville, Tenn. 1:00 p.m. Sun, Mar 03 Michigan State Clarksville, Tenn. 1:00 p.m. Tue, Mar 05 Western Kentucky at Bowling Green, Ky. 3:00 p.m. Wed, Mar 06 Western Kentucky Clarksville, Tenn. 3:00 p.m. 2013 Riverview Inn Classic Fri, Mar 08 Creighton vs. UALR Clarksville, Tenn. 12:00 p.m. Fri, Mar 08 Milwaukee Clarksville, Tenn. 3:30 p.m. Sat, Mar 09 Milwaukee vs. UALR Clarksville, Tenn. 12:00 p.m. Sat, Mar 09 Creighton Clarksville, Tenn. 3:30 p.m. Sun, Mar 10 Creighton vs. Milwaukee Clarksville, Tenn. 11:00 a.m. Sun, Mar 10 UALR Clarksville, Tenn. 2:30 p.m. Wed, Mar 13 Lipscomb at Nashville, Tenn. 4:00 p.m. Fri, Mar 15 Eastern Illinois * at Charleston, Ill. 3:00 p.m. GSN Sat, Mar 16 Eastern Illinois * at Charleston, Ill. 1:00 p.m. GSN Sun, Mar 17 Eastern Illinois * at Charleston, Ill. 1:00 p.m. GSN Wed, Mar 20 Indiana State at Terre Haute, Ind. 2:00 p.m. Fri, Mar 22 Jacksonville State * Clarksville, Tenn. 6:00 p.m. GSN Sat, Mar 23 Jacksonville State * Clarksville, Tenn. 2:00 p.m. GSN Sun, Mar 24 Jacksonville State * Clarksville, Tenn. 1:00 p.m. GSN Tue, Mar 26 Mississippi State at Starkville, Miss. 6:30 p.m. Thu, Mar 28 Murray State * at Murray, Ky. 3:00 p.m. GSN Fri, Mar 29 Murray State * at Murray, Ky. 2:00 p.m. GSN Sat, Mar 30 Murray State * at Murray, Ky. 1:00 p.m. GSN Tue, Apr 02 Lipscomb Clarksville, Tenn. 6:00 p.m. Fri, Apr 05 Tennessee Tech * Clarksville, Tenn. 6:00 p.m. GSN Sat, Apr 06 Tennessee Tech * Clarksville, Tenn. 2:00 p.m. GSN Sun, Apr 07 Tennessee Tech * Clarksville, Tenn. 1:00 p.m. GSN Tue, Apr 09 Kentucky at Lexington, Ky. 5:30 p.m. Wed, Apr 10 Southern Illinois at Carbondale, Ill. 3:00 p.m. Fri, Apr 12 Southeast Missouri * at Cape Girardeau, Mo. 5:00 p.m. GSN Sat, Apr 13 Southeast Missouri * at Cape Girardeau, Mo. 2:00 p.m. GSN Sun, Apr 14 Southeast Missouri * at Cape Girardeau, Mo. 1:00 p.m. GSN Tue, Apr 16 Evansville at Evansville, Ind. 6:00 p.m. Fri, Apr 19 Belmont * Clarksville, Tenn. 6:00 p.m. GSN Sat, Apr 20 Belmont * Clarksville, Tenn. 2:00 p.m. GSN Sun, Apr 21 Belmont * Clarksville, Tenn. 1:00 p.m. GSN Wed, Apr 24 Evansville Clarksville, Tenn. 6:00 p.m. Fri, Apr 26 Eastern Kentucky * at Richmond, Ky. 2:00 p.m. GSN Sat, Apr 27 Eastern Kentucky * at Richmond, Ky. 1:00 p.m. GSN Sun, Apr 28 Eastern Kentucky * at Richmond, Ky. 12:00 p.m. GSN Wed, May 01 Middle Tennessee Clarksville, Tenn. 6:00 p.m. Fri, May 03 Morehead State * Clarksville, Tenn. 6:00 p.m. GSN Sat, May 04 Morehead State * Clarksville, Tenn. 2:00 p.m. GSN Sun, May 05 Morehead State * Clarksville, Tenn. 1:00 p.m. GSN Fri, May 10 UT Martin * at Martin, Tenn. TBA GSN Sat, May 11 UT Martin * at Martin, Tenn. TBA GSN Sun, May 12 UT Martin * at Martin, Tenn. TBA GSN Tue, May 14 Memphis at Memphis, Tenn. 6:30 p.m. Thu, May 16 SIU Edwardsville * Clarksville, Tenn. 6:00 p.m. GSN Fri, May 17 SIU Edwardsville * Clarksville, Tenn. 6:00 p.m. GSN Sat, May 18 SIU Edwardsville * Clarksville, Tenn. 2:00 p.m. GSN 2013 Ohio Valley Conference Baseball Championship Wed, May 22 Opening Rounds at Jackson, Tenn. TBA Thu, May 23 – Fri, May 24 Tournament Play at Jackson, Tenn. TBA Sat, May 25 – Sun, May 26 Championship at Jackson, Tenn. TBA 2013 NCAA Baseball Championship Thu, May 30 – Sun, Jun 02 Regionals at TBA TBA Fri, Jun 07 – Sun, Jun 09 Super Regionals at TBA TBA Fri, Jun 14 – Tue, Jun 25 Men’s College World Series at Omaha, Neb. TBA

* Conference Games