Edinburg, TX – The Austin Peay State University (APSU) baseball team scored 10 unanswered runs to rally from a 5-2 deficit but had to hold off a late UT Rio Grande Valley push to claim a 12-11 series-opening victory Friday night at UTRGV Baseball Stadium.
Austin Peay (9-1) won its ninth straight game overall and third straight road game. The Govs’ 9-1 mark through 10 games is the program’s best start since a 10-0 beginning to the 1958 season.
Midway through the game, the APSU Govs faced a 5-2 deficit as the homestanding Vaqueros scored three in the fifth inning to take the lead. Austin Peay State University immediately got two of those runs back in a sequence that would prove familiar later.
Third baseman Brody Szako opened the inning with a single, center fielder John Bay followed with a single, and first baseman Justin Olson drove in a run with a double. Second baseman Ambren Voitik would drive in the second run with a groundout, trimming the deficit to 5-4.
Reliever D.J. Merriweather held UTRGV scoreless in the sixth and seventh innings, keeping the Govs within a run. Austin Peay State University would erase that lead and take one of its own with a seven-run eighth inning. This time the Szako-Bay-Olson sequence went single, sacrifice bunt, and RBI single to tie the game.
Catcher Trevor Conley broke the tie with an RBI single, and the Govs’ offense was out of the blocks. Voitik and designated hitter Harrison Brown followed with RBI on a single and walk, respectively. The Govs scored another run on a wild pitch, and pinch hitter Jaden Brown drove in two more with a single to cap the outburst.
However, an innocuous ninth-inning run that Conley nearly manufactured on his own proved pivotal. Conley reached on a bunt single and then stole second base. He advanced to third base on a wild pitch and eventually scored on left fielder Clayton Gray’s ground out, giving APSU a 12-5 lead.
UTRGV (5-3) did not go quietly into the night. The Vaqueros opened the bottom of the ninth with a double and a single before scoring a run on a wild pitch. They then loaded the bases with a walk and a single to force an APSU pitching change.
Reliever Campbell Holt retired the first batter he faced for the inning’s second out but could not close the door. He hit the next batter to force in a run before left-fielder Adrian Torres drove in two runs with a double to center field. Holt walked the next batter and departed with runners on the corners and APSU leading 12-10.
The APSU Govs turned to Tyler Hampu to stave off the Vaqueros’ charge. However, he walked the first batter he faced to load the bases and put the winning run on base. Hampu then ran into a touch of bad luck as catcher Steven Lancia fought off a pitch with the handle of his bat, and it found empty space in the infield for an RBI single, narrowing the lead to one run. But Hampu recovered and struck out the next batter on three pitches to end the game.
Olson went 3-for-4, with each of his three hits providing an RBI, including an RBI single in the fourth inning. The APSU Govs’ five through nine hitters combined for 11 of the team’s hits and drove in eight runs. Right fielder Lyle Miller-Green belted his sixth home run of 2024 in the first inning.
Reliever D.J. Merriweather (2-0) claimed the win with 2.2 innings of scoreless relief. Tyler Hampu notched his season’s second save.
Lancia went 5-for-5 with two RBI, and Torres was 1-for-4 with three RBI to pace the UTRGV offense. Reliever Tyler Valdez (1-1) lost after allowing five runs on six hits in 2.1 innings.
The Austin Peay State University baseball team won its first-ever game in Texas, and UTRGV continue the series with a Saturday 6:30pm game.
