Austin Peay State University Baseball’s P.J.Torres hits walk-off home run to propel Governors to 9-8 win over Morehead State

Clarksville, TN – Austin Peay State University’s baseball team got two home runs from catcher P.J. Torres, May 3rd at Raymond C. Hand Park — including a game-winning walk-off in the bottom of the 10th inning — as the Govs defeated the Morehead State University Eagles in an Ohio Valley Conference contest, 9-8.

Torres first home run come in the bottom of the eighth inning cutting the Eagles lead to 8-6.

Austin Peay would send the game into extra innings by scoring two runs in the bottom of the ninth on a walk followed by a home run.

Jordan Hankins drew a one-out walk to bring the tying run to the place in Craig Massoni – who didn’t disappoint – as he hit his 10th of the season to tie the game, 8-8.

Hankins walked three times in the contest and scored two runs, while Massoni had two hits.

Morehead State (15-32, 9-13 OVC) would score in its fourth straight inning in the seventh to take its first lead of the game, 7-5.

Chase Greenwell would record a double – his third hit of the game – to open the inning, followed by Brandon Rawe’s fourth home run of the season.

The Eagles would continue to add to its lead in the top of the eighth, as Kane Sweeney led off the inning with his third home run of the season to put the Govs down three runs, 8-6, with six outs to go before the Governors started its final comeback.

Early on both teams had chances to score, but failed to over the first two and a half innings, but Austin Peay would break the scoreless deadlock in the bottom of the third inning by scoring two runs on three hits against Morehead State starter Blake Smith.

Torres would get things going with an infield hit and moved to third on a single up the middle by Dylan Ryner.

Rolando Gautier would then follow with the third hit – a hump-back liner – over the shortstop’s head to score Torres and move Ryner to third.

Ryner would score on fielder’s choice by Kevin Corey to make it 2-0.

But Morehead State would respond in the top of the fourth to tie the game with two runs on four hits, while also aided by two Governors errors.

Sweeney would lead off the inning with the Eagles’ first hit of the day and move to third on a single to left by Greenwell – who advanced to second when Hudson misplayed the ball in left field.

Austin Peay would get the first out of the inning on a line drive to short, but Bobby Burns drove in Sweeney with a single, with Greenwell scoring a batter later on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Bobby Lewis to tie the game 2-2.

The Morehead State lead would be short lived, as Hudson led off the bottom of the fourth with his second home run of the season to allow the Govs to retake the lead, 3-2.

But much like their first lead, the Govs watched the Eagles rally right back to tie the game in their next at bat.

Duran Elmore would start the rally with a one-out infield single and move to third on a single by Sweeney.

Greenwell would follow with a single, to score Elmore to make it 3-3.

The Eagles looked to have scored a second run on a sacrifice fly to short left field by Burns, but Sweeney was called out for the final out on the inning on appeal by the Governors that he had left the base to early.

For the third straight inning, Austin Peay would take the lead, this time scoring twice to go up 5-3.

Gautier would lead off the inning with his second hit of the game, and an out later, moved to second following a walk to Hankins.

Gautier would come around to score the Govs first run of the inning without the aid of a hit, as he moved to third base off a wild pitch by Smith and score off a passed ball by Eagles catcher Drew Williams.

Again, the Eagles would battle back to tie the game in their next at bat by scoring two more runs in the top of the sixth inning.

The scoring would start with one out on Alan Mocahbee’s fourth home run of the season, to make it 5-4, followed by a single by Taylor Pickings and a RBI double by Williams – to score Pickings – and tie the game 5-5.

Game two of the three-game OVC series will continue on May 4th at 2:00pm.

Box Score

Score by Innings                      R  H  E
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Morehead State...... 000 212 210 0 -  8 16  2
Austin Peay......... 002 120 012 1 -  9 13  4
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