2012 OVC Baseball Championship - Day 3

5/25/2012 3:09:00 PM

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The 2012 Ohio Valley Conference Baseball Championship featured three games on Friday.

The day started with Jacksonville State eliminating Eastern Kentucky. The Gamecocks remained on the field to battle No. 1 seed and defending champion Austin Peay, but lost 7-6 in 11 innings.

In the nightcap, No. 4 seed Eastern Illinois advanced to its first Championship Round at the tournament since 2008 with a 7-6 victory over No. 6 seed Southeast Missouri.

This season marks the 34th time the event has been held but the third year in a row it has been held at Pringles Park in Jackson, Tenn. Pringles Park is home of the Jackson Generals, the AA-affiliate of the Seattle Mariners.

The entire tournament is being streamed live and free of charge at OVCSports.TV.

Friday, May 25
Game 6 - #3 Jacksonville State 9, #2 Eastern Kentucky 4
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Game 7 - #1 Austin Peay 7, #3 Jacksonville State 6 (11)
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Game 8 - #4 Eastern Illinois 7, #6 Southeast Missouri 6
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#3 JACKSONVILLE STATE 9, #2 EASTERN KENTUCKY 4
JACKSON, Tenn. - Jacksonville State scored three times in the sixth inning and five times in the seventh on its way to a 9-4 victory over Eastern Kentucky in an elimination game on Day Three of the 2012 OVC Baseball Championship on Friday at Pringles Park.

With its second elimination game victory in as many days, Jacksonville State advances to play No. 1 seed Austin Peay in another elimination game at 3:00 p.m. today.

Eastern Kentucky (31-22) started the game with a solo home run by senior shortstop Richie Rodriguez before adding an unearned run in the second inning and a third run in the fourth to grab the 3-0 advantage.

In the sixth inning Scott Underwood doubled home a pair of runs to put Jacksonville State (27-29) on the board and Ben Waldrip added a sacrifice fly to tie the game.

An inning later the Gamecocks got to the Eastern Kentucky bullpen, scoring five times (including three off Colonel closer Anthony Bazzani) with the big hit coming off Waldrip's bat, as he doubled high off the leftfield wall to drive in three runs.

Senior Hunter Rivers (6-3) went eight innings, allowing eight hits and three runs (two earned) while striking out seven in picking up the victory.

Reliever Greg Terry (2-4) took the loss, as he was charged with two runs from the JSU's five-run sixth.

Eastern Kentucky entered the tournament having won 24 of its last 30 games, the Colonels dropped both of its games at the OVC Tournament, losing back-to-back games for the first time since mid-April.

#1 AUSTIN PEAY 7, #3 JACKSONVILLE STATE 6 (11)
JACKSON, Tenn. - Greg Bachman raced home to score the winning run on a 2-2 wild pitch by Jacksonville State closer Todd Hornsby as Austin Peay eliminated Jacksonville State 7-6 in 11 innings on Friday at the OVC Baseball Championship at Pringles Park.

A night after striking out with the bases loaded to end his team's game with Southeast Missouri, Bachman singled in the gap with one out in the bottom of the 11th and later came home to score the winning run in this game, sending his team to the loser's bracket finale on Saturday at Noon. Austin Peay (35-22) will face Southeast Missouri.

Hornsby (3-4), the OVC's all-time saves leader, took the loss, allowing just the one run over the final 4.1 innings of the game. After entering the game in the seventh he allowed only two hits and struck out three. In total Hornsby threw 81 pitches.

Austin Peay closer Tyler Rogers was in a similar situation, pitching the last four innings and allowing only two hits over that time frame in picking up the frame.

Jacksonville State (28-30) took a 5-2 lead after three innings before Austin Peay rallied to tie the game at six after seven innings.

Bachman, the OVC's RBI leader, finished 4-for-5 with three runs scored while Rolando Gautier added a pair of RBI.

Kyle Bluestein drove in three runs for Jax State, including a solo home run.

It marked the first extra innings game since the 2010 Championship, ending a stretch of 22 games without extra innings.

#4 EASTERN ILLINOIS 7, #6 SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 6
JACKSON, Tenn. - A seventh inning Southeast Missouri error led to two Eastern Illinois runs as the Panthers topped the Redhawks 7-6 in Friday's nightcap at the 2012 Ohio Valley Conference Baseball Championship at Pringles Park.

With the victory Eastern Illinois advances to the Championship Round on Saturday and will play the winner of the Austin Peay/Southeast Missouri elimination game (3:30 p.m.). That elimination game between the Redhawks and Governors will kick-off Saturday's action at Noon.

It marks the first time that EIU has been in the Championship Round since winning the OVC Championship in 2008 (beating Southeast Missouri 7-4 in that finale).

The Panthers have now won 14 of its last 18 games.

Both teams scored lone runs in the fourth inning before Eastern Illinois (29-27) jumped out to a 5-1 advantage after a four-run fourth inning that saw a T.J. McManus two-run double and a Ben Thoma two-run home run.

The home run was the 40th of Thoma's career, breaking the Eastern Illinois career mark.

Southeast Missouri (23-35) responded with four runs in the fifth to tie the game with the big hit coming from freshman Andy Lennington, who singled home two runs.

But the Panthers would score on a fielding error in the seventh and add a seventh run on a sacrifice fly by Ryan Dineen that proved to be the game-winning run.

Southeast Missouri added a run in the ninth but the game ended when Cole Bieser struck out with runners on first and third in the ninth inning.

Redhawks starter Dylan Lynn (4-1) struck out eight but gave up all seven EIU runs over 6.1 innings of work in getting saddled with the loss.

Panthers starter Christian Slazinik lasted just four inning; in relief senior Darin Worman (5-4), making his OVC single-season record 37th appearance, earned the victory, allowing no runs over 2.1 innings. Adam Clark closed out the game to pick up his fourth save of the season.