APSU Sports Information
Clarksville, TN – Austin Peay State University’s (APSU) softball team made a triumphant return to the Ohio Valley Conference Championship Tournament, Wednesday at Choccolocco Park in Oxford, AL, downing UT Martin, 2-0.
The APSU Governors (37-15), the tournament’s second-seed, scored both of its runs in the bottom of the first inning.
Junior center fielder Kacy Acree opening the inning with a single down the left field line, followed by a single up the middle by freshman center fielder Bailey Shorter – with both moving up a base on an infield groundout by junior third baseman Danielle Liermann.
Shorter and Liermann would led APSU with two hits each.
That would bring up junior pitcher Morgan Rackel, who hit a hard ground ball to the second base – that scored Acree – but the second baseman’s throw was wide of the bag allowing Shorter to also score.
Those two runs would be all that Rackel (20-6) would need, as the Calgary, Alberta, Canada native shutout the Skyhawks (25-31) on three hits, while walking two and striking out three.
The Govs continue their return to the OVC Championship, 12:30pm, Thursday as they face defending tournament champion Jacksonville State.
You can follow all the Govs action at the OVC Softball Championships at the conference’s tournament website at http://ovcsports.com/sports/2017/6/15/2018softball.aspx or at the Govs softball team on Austin Peay’s official athletics website Let’sGoPeay.com or on Twitter @AustinPeaySB for more information or updates.
Inside the Box Score
The shutout by the Govs versus UT Martin was their 15th of the season, the most in a single season in program history, breaking the old record set back in 1989.
In earning the victory, Morgan Rackel became just the fourth Austin Peay pitcher to record 20 wins in a season.
With her hit in the first inning, junior Kacy Acree extended her consecutive-game hit streak to 15 – the longest such streak by any APSU player since 2000 – while also extended her consecutive-game reach base streak to 28 straight games.
The tournament-opening victory was just the third in 11 OVC Tournaments for the Govs.
Freshman Bailey Shorter picked up her 50th hit of the season, joining juniors Danielle Liermann and Kacy Acree with 50+ hits this season, joining the 1998 team to have three different players record at least 50 hits in the same season.
Morgan Rackel‘s shutout versus UT Martin was her seventh this season, tying for the third most in a single season by a Govs pitcher.
Austin Peay improves to 32-4 this season in games where they score first.
The double by Danielle Liermann was the 34th of her career, moving her alone into second-place all-time in program history.
Coaching Quotables with Head Coach Rodney DeLong
“Anytime you can win that opening game in a tournament like this it’s good. It doesn’t matter how we looked or how we played we’re just glad we won the game.”
On how important it was to get out to that early lead
“Getting out to a lead early is huge, especially in the post season. Anytime you can take a lead early it can take some of the pressure off and obviously today it was the only two runs of the game, but it was huge for us.”
On Morgan Rackel effort in the circle
“Morgan didn’t quite have the spin quality out there today, but she did a great job of pitching to contact. She jammed a couple of hitters, kept people off balance and just threw well.”
On matchup versus Jacksonville State
“We expect a great crowd with us facing a great opponent in Jacksonville State, We are looking forward to the challenge, it should be fun.”
