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APSU Governors Baseball heads to SIU Edwardsville to battle for OVC Tournament berth

Austin Peay Governors vs. SIU Edwardsville

Thurday-Saturday, May 15th-17th
Edwardsville, IL | Simmons Baseball Complex

Austin Peay State University Governors - APSUClarksville, TN – The 2014 regular-season will end with Austin Peay’s baseball team (22-31, 13-14 OVC) on the road for a three-game Ohio Valley Conference series at SIUE (19-30, 14-13 OVC) with OVC Tournament hopes on the line for both squads.

Right-hander Alex Robles will take the mound for the Govs regular-season ending series at SIUE, Thursday night. (Brittney Sparn/APSU Sports Information)
Right-hander Alex Robles will take the mound for the Govs regular-season ending series at SIUE, Thursday night. (Brittney Sparn/APSU Sports Information)

The final weekend series will begin with a 6:00pm, Thursday contest followed by a 6:00pm, Friday affair before the regular season-ending 1:00pm, Saturday matchup.

Austin Peay kept its tournament hopes alive with a dramatic walk-off win against UT Martin, Monday, and enters the weekend alone in sixth place, but with only a one-half game cushion.

SIUE returns to OVC action after its off week in the league schedule. The Cougars are tied for fourth place, just one game ahead of the Govs.

Austin Peay Governors

Austin Peay enters the weekend with its season’s first 3-game win streak after failing to win 3 in a row in its seven previous tries. In OVC weekends the Govs are 5-4 in Game 1, 6-3 in Game 2 and 2-7 in Game 3.

Cayce BredlauThe Govs finished the 2014 season with a 14-16 record at Raymond C. Hand Park, its first losing mark at home since 2001. APSU is 7-15 away from the friendly confines.

Outfielder Cayce Bredlau has taken over as the Govs batting leader, entering the weekend with a .350 overall batting average (9th in OVC) as he has batted .468 (22-for-47) with 7 extra-base hits over the last 11 games. Bredlau also leads the Govs with a .404 batting average (6th in OVC) and .500 on-base percentage (2nd in OVC) during OVC play.

Two-way man Alex Robles (3B/P) is batting .348 (11th in OVC) entering the weekend; he has a 6-2 record and 3.65 ERA on the mound, ranking 4th in wins and 8th in ERA among OVC hurlers (and 1st among freshmen in both categories).

Ridge SmithUtility man Ridge Smith ranks 10th among OVC hitters (2nd among freshmen) with 43 RBI, including his walk off RBI single against UT Martin, Monday (his 4th game-winning RBI). Second baseman Garrett Copeland moved into the leadoff spot April 19th at Belmont, and is batting .255 with a .465 on-base percentage in the 14 games since the move.

Outfielder Rolando Gautier saw an 11-game hit streak stopped in the UT Martin series finale; he is batting .375 since April 23rd. Bredlau (39 walks) and Gautier (37 walks) rank first and third, respectively, among OVC walks leaders.

APSU has seen 7 freshmen start at least half of its games this season (tied for most in Division I) and 8 have taken an at-bat this year. Those freshmen have combined to hit .279 (335-for-1202) and drive in 200 of the team’s 291 RBI.

The Govs defense has battled inconsistency with 102 errors this season (.951 fielding percentage), but its 10 errorless outings have come the 32 games since the Eastern Illinois series finale, March 15 (.961 fielding percentage in that span).

Head coach Gary McClure is one of 28 active Division I coaches with 800 wins and he is APSU and the OVC’s all-time wins leader. The Govs did not have a player selected to the preseason All-OVC squad; only senior catcher P.J. Torres returns after receiving All-OVC honors (2nd team) last season.

First Pitch

Alex RoblesRight-hander Alex Robles has been a member of the weekend rotation each week of the campaign and is 6-2 with a 3.65 ERA this season. He has struck out 28 batters in his last 5 outings (23.2 innings pitched). Robles is 4-1 with a 3.30 ERA in his 9 OVC starts totalling 57.1 innings pitched (6.1 innings per start).

Right-hander Jared Carkuff notched his second OVC win with 7 scoreless innings against UT Martin, Sunday, striking out a career-high 6 batters. Carkuff is 2-0 with a 5.55 ERA in his 5 OVC starts.

The Govs Saturday starter will be determined during the series. Austin Peay starting pitchers are 7-7 with a 5.98 ERA in conference play this season.

Probable Starting Pitchers

Date/
Time
Austin Peay Starter
vs. Opponent’s Starter
Thursday, 6:00pm RHP Alex Robles (Fr., 6-2, 3.65 ERA)
RHP Jarrett Bednar (Jr., 1-5, 6.84 ERA)
Friday, 6:00pm RHP Jared Carkuff (So., 3-2, 4.86 ERA)
RHP Ryan Daniels (Jr., 6-0, 3.73 ERA)
Saturday, 1:00pm TBA
TBA

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