APSU Sports Information
Evansville, IN – On Wednesday, April 5th, the Austin Peay State University’s softball team scored the most runs it had put up in a single game in a month at James & Dorothy Stadium, with the Governors pounding the University of Evansville 12-2 in their nightcap contest after dropping an opening-game slugfest, 10-7.
Austin Peay got on the board early, scoring three times in the first inning, including an RBI single by Kendall Vedder and Carly Mattson picking up an RBI on a groundout.
Vedder would finish the game going 3-for-3 at the plate, with two runs scored and four RBIs.
Those runs would be all the scoring that APSU starter Autumn Hanners (6-7) would need, as the senior limited the Purple Aces (13-20) to one run on four hits, while striking four and walking none in five innings of work.
But while Hanners kept the Evansville bats at bay, the same couldn’t be said for the Purple Aces’ pitchers, with Austin Peay getting a home run from Emily Moore in the second inning and Carly Mattson in the third, while also adding an unearned run in the third to extend its lead to 6-0.
Overall, the Govs would hit five home runs in the doubleheader giving them 36 on the season, tying the 2015 team for the most home runs hit in a single season by an Austin Peay team.
The Govs would make it 8-0 in the fourth inning, with Danielle Liermann picking up an RBI with a sacrifice fly and Christiana Gable driving in one with a groundout.
After Evansville got of the board with a run in the bottom of the fourth, the Govs would close out their scoring with a four-run sixth inning, highlighted by a three-run homer by Vedder, with Gable adding an RBI single.
Evansville would score the game’s final run in the bottom of the sixth for the 12-2 final.
In Game 1, the Govs got out to a quick 1-0 lead, with Acree scoring on a throwing error, but Evansville would score the next six runs over their first three at bats to go up 6-1.
Gable would hit a solo home run in the top of the fourth inning to get the Govs to within four, but the Purple Aces responded with three runs in the bottom of the inning to push its lead out to 9-1.
But the Govs wouldn’t go down without a fight, picking up a run in the fifth off an RBI double by Acree and three more in the sixth – including a home run by Victoria Eccleston and a RBI single by Rikki Arkansas – to make it 10-6.
Acree was the lone Governor to record more than one hit in Game 1, by going 2-for-3 at the plate.
But the hole the Govs had dug early-on was just too deep to climb out of, with the Govs only being able to score one time in the top of the seventh, on a sacrifice fly by Gable, for the 10-7 final.
The Govs return to Ohio Valley Conference action this weekend as they hit the road to play Southeast Missouri and Tennessee Martin.
