West Lafayette, IN – The Austin Peay State University baseball team carried an eight-run lead through the first four innings against the Boilermakers. They scored 13 runs in the contest, giving the Governors enough insurance to come away with a midweek 16-10 victory over Purdue on Tuesday at Alexander Field.
How it Happened
Top 1st | Easton Story, the Purdue starting pitcher, found himself in some early trouble against the APSU Govs. Kyler Proctor led the game with a fly ball to the right fielder, Keenan Spence. He dropped the ball on the play, which allowed Proctor to reach on the error. A pitch then hit John Bay, and Cameron Nickens followed with a four-pitch walk to load the bases. Story struck out the next two batters in the Austin Peay lineup before back-to-back walks to Brody Szako and Ray Velazquez allowed the game’s first two runs to score, giving the Govs a 2-0 lead.
Top 3rd | Austin Peay State University’s Gus Freeman led the third with a loud line drive down the left field line, resulting in a leadoff double. Gavin Beuter relieved Storey on the mound and faced Cole Johnson as his first opponent. He got Johnson to ground out, but Szako got on with an infield single. Velazquez then singled to left field, and Freeman was thrown out at the plate from the outfield assist of Avery Moore. Andres Matias was the next batter, and he didn’t mind batting with two outs, as he hit his sixth home run over the left field fence to bring in three more runs, extending the Govs lead to 5-0.
Top 4th | The APSU offense came through again in the fourth inning, putting up another three-run inning which began with a Proctor single to lead off the inning. Joe Trenerry then came into the game to relieve Beuter on the mound. He could retire John Bay on strikes, but Nickens and Freeman followed with a single and a walk to load the bases. A pitch then hit Johnson to bring in the first run of the inning. Two batters later was Velazquez, and he delivered with a two-out two-RBI single to right field, which extended the Govs lead to 8-0.
Bottom 5th | Chance Cox had thrown four scoreless innings up to the fifth inning. He walked the leadoff batter, Camden Gasser, to begin the inning. Cox then got Brandon Anderson to ground out to Freeman, but Logan Sutter came up to the plate and hit a two-run home run to plate the first two Boilermaker runs, making the score 8-2.
Top 7th | The Govs had their first big inning in the top of the seventh inning. Matias led off with a single to left field before a pitch hit Keaton Cottam to put the first two batters on. Bay then delivered a one-out RBI single up the middle for his third hit of the game. That knocked out Maclane Finley, who threw 2.2 innings in relief for Purdue. Nickens had to face the new man on the mound, Isaac Milburn, and singled down the third base line to load the bases. Freeman was the next batter, and he grounded into a fielder’s choice, but got a run across the plate. Johnson then had a two-run double in the right field corner to put the Govs up by 10 runs. He advanced to third base on a Szako single before crossing the plate on a passed ball, extending the lead to 13-2.
Bottom 7th | Davin Pollard began the bottom half of the inning on the mound in relief of Cox, who threw a quality start for the Govs. He walked the first batter he faced before getting Anderson to pop up on the infield to Proctor. Sutter then stepped up and hit a two-run homer to straightaway center, getting the Boilermakers out of the 10-run rule threat. After walking the next batter, Kade Shatwell relieved Pollard. He picked off CJ Richmond, who just reached on the walk from Pollard, for the second out of the inning. Shatwell could retire Breck Nowick on a line out to Bay in center for the final out of the inning and hold the score to 13-4.
Bottom 8th | Shatwell got into early trouble in the eighth, hitting the leadoff batter with a pitch after getting ahead with a two-strike count. He then gave up back-to-back singles to load the bases. Anderson would step up next and hit a single to center, which scored two runs. After giving up another base hit to Sutter to load the bases, Solomon Washington relieved Shatwell. He struck out the first two batters he faced before allowing a two-run double off the bat of Aaron Manias. Ty Gill then delivered a two-run single to get the Boilermakers within three runs. He hit the next batter after getting ahead by two strikes, which ended his time on the mound, as he was relieved by Kaleb Applebey. The right-hander came through in a big moment, striking out Brandon Rogers looking to end the inning and keep a 13-10 lead.
Top 9th | Avery Cook began the ninth on the mound for Purdue and retired the first batter he faced. Freeman and Johnson then reached on a hit by pitch and a base hit. After striking out Nathan Barksdale, he gave up a three-run home run to Velazquez, which put the Govs up 16-10.
Wrap Up
Cox picked up his third win of the season to improve to 3-0. He threw six innings with six strikeouts, allowing just two runs on four hits and a pair of walks.
Storey was given the loss to fall to 2-1 on the season after throwing a pair of innings, allowing two runs to score on a pair of hits and a hit batter.
Kaleb Applebey collected his eighth save of the season after throwing the game’s final 1.1 innings and striking out three batters.
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Next Up For APSU Baseball
The Austin Peay State University has an Atlantic Sun Conference series rematch at home against North Alabama on Friday, 6:00pm CT, at Joe Maynard Field at Raymond C. Hand Park.
