June 3, 2012

CBI Live: #4 Austin Peay 3, #2 Cal State Fullerton 0

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Ducks’ Win Is Super

By Taylor Gelbrich

CollegeBaseballInsider.com

EUGENE, Ore. – Freshman Jake Reed stepped up in his first postseason start to give the top-seeded Oregon Ducks their first Super Regional berth with an 8-1 win over fourth-seeded Austin Peay in a rematch of Friday night's game.

Reed (7-4) pitched an absolute gem and quieted any questions about how he would perform in the big game quickly.

"He did exactly what we asked him to do, take his electric stuff and just pound the low part of the strike zone," said Oregon head coach George Horton. "That's a good-hitting team. We all saw it all week and he dominated them for whatever reason, whether they were tired or not, but he can't control that he did control him and he was spectacular.”

Reed gave up only two hits in seven innings with eight strikeouts. The freshman threw 111 pitches, 68 for strikes.

"I thought he located every pitch pretty well,” said Austin Peay third baseman Greg Bachman. “He was staying away from us and his fastball had pretty good run on it. Everything he had was on, so hats off to him. He pitched really well.”

The Governors (40-24) threw seven total pitchers and only one worked longer than two innings.

The Ducks (45-17) got things going early once again as Aaron Payne led off the first with a walk and Aaron Jones followed with a hit-by-pitch. Kacy Kemmer (2-1) started the game throwing eight straight balls for APSU. Ryon Healy moved the runners over with a nice sacrifice bunt down the third base line.

With one down and runners on second and third, Brett Thomas laced a ball off Kemmer's ankle that scored Payne, but Thomas was thrown out at first.

In the third, Austin Peay went with a new pitcher, Mike Herbert, but that didn't help matters for the Governors.

Jones, Healy, and Thomas started the third with consecutive base hits, as Thomas' single scored Jones from second. Kyle Garlick brought in Healy with a sacrifice fly to left field and the Ducks went up 3-0.

The Governors had seen enough from Herbert and decided to go with Zane Leffew from the bullpen to face Ryan Hambright, who had seven hits in his past eight at-bats, but Leffew struck out R. Hambright to end the inning.

The Ducks were back for more in the fourth. Connor Hofmann took first base with a walk with one out and J.J Altobelli backed him up with a walk of his own, but not until Hofmann stole second and third.

With runners on the corners, Payne put down the safety squeeze and scored Hofmann from third. The Ducks went up 4-0 and weren't done.

Jones was hit by a pitch and Healy brought in another run with his bases-loaded sac fly. With runners on the corners and two outs, the Ducks put on the hit-and-run with Thomas at the plate and he executed it perfectly to score another run as Oregon increased the lead to 6-0.

"They executed the things they execute very well,” said APSU head coach Gary McClure. “They bunt, they move guys over, they put guys in motion. They didn't put a lot of hits up on the board but they don't have to score runs with the type of team they are."

There was a little brother-to-brother connection for the Ducks in the seventh. R. Hambright led off the inning with a walk and then older brother, Brett, hit an absolute bomb over the left field wall to give the Ducks an 8-0 lead.

Austin Peay was able to get one run across in the ninth, but that was all. The Ducks went on to win 8-1 and will host their first Super Regional against Kent State next weekend.