—NCAA Regional at Atlanta
No. 3 MSU (35-23, finished second in the SEC West) v No. 4 Austin Peay (34-22, Ohio Valley Conference champion)
Bulldogs beat Southern Miss 3-0 on Friday to advance in winner”s bracket; Austin Peay beat Georgia Tech 2-1.
Game time: 6:06 p.m. (CDT)
Broadcast: CSS
—About the Governors
As the No. 4 seed in the regional, Austin Peay upset host Georgia Tech, 2-1, on Friday. The Governors had just four hits and saw their top four hitters in the lineup go 2-of-16, but Austin Peay rode the arm of starter Jack Snodgrass, who pitched seven innings and gave up seven runs and one hit. Their relievers, Mike Hebert and Zach Toney helped preserve the win without giving up a hit or a walk.
Hebert threw 10 pitches in setup and is a key bullpen arm with 40 1/3 innings pitched in 32 relief appearances.
Austin Peay ended the season on a tear, going 12-3 over the last 15 games of the regular season and unbeaten (3-0) in the OVC tournament.
“You just Google Austin Peay, and there”s several articles about how much of a run they”re on right now and how they”re one of the hottest teams in the country,” MSU coach John Cohen said. “They”ve done some pretty impressive things, especially over the last 10-15 games.”
Austin Peay lost two games to Ole Miss, including a one-run loss in extra innings earlier this season. The Governors also lost to Tennessee. MSU went a combined 5-2 against Ole Miss and Tennessee.
APSU split with Belmont, whom the Bulldogs took two of three from, and went 2-1 against Eastern Illinois and beat Lipscomb. The Bulldogs beat both EIU and Lipscomb.
APSU is led at the plate by Jordan Hankins, who leads the team with a .361 batting average. He has four home runs and 31 RBIs.
John Hogan is the Governors” big gun, leading the team with 13 home runs and 62 RBIs.
—Starting Pitchers:
—MSU: Fr. RHP Evan Mitchell (5-1, 3.49 ERA)
MSU coaches felt the freshman was a likely candidate to earn a start in Atlanta even before the team left Starkville.
Mitchell, a Marietta, Ga. native, has 16 strikeouts in his last two outings (9 1/3 innings). Mitchell has started five games this season, including a five-inning outings against Florida in the SEC tournament when he gave up two earned runs and struck out five in a no-decision. That performance came after a brilliant relief outing against Memphis on May 17 when he struck out 11 in 4 1/3 innings to lead the Bulldogs to the win.
“Evan”s been fearless and has done a lot of things that are pretty difficult for freshmen to do,” Cohen said. “I”ve been really pleased with his progress. I don”t think he”s gonna do anything but get better.”
—APU: Jr. LHP Jeremy Dobbs (9-2, 3.43 ERA)
Dobbs, selected in the 30th round of the 2008 MLB First-Year Player Draft by Baltimore Orioles, struggled mightily as a sophomore, going 1-0 with an 8.33 ERA in 15 appearances.
This season, Dobbs has broken through as APU”s ace, leading the team in wins and ERA.
Dobbs went eight innings and gave up one earned run on four hits in APU”s 2-1 win over Tennessee Tech in the first round of the OVC tournament.
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