June 2, 2007
Austin Peay 18 Memphis 7
NCAA Regional — Nashville, Tenn.
Game 3 Notes
Austin Peay
•First Ohio Valley Conference team to win a game in a regional since Southeastern Missouri defeated Alabama in the opening round in 2002
•The Ohio Valley Conference had lost nine straight games in the NCAA tournament
•Levi Cheshire hit his second homerun of the season; his other homerun was an inside the park homerun on April 28 @ UT-Martin
•Austin Peay had scored only 7 runs in NCAA tournament play entering the game
•Austin Peay won 40 games for the 2nd time in school history; they went 44-22 in 1996 and went to the NCAAs
•Tyler Bullock hit his 3rd pinch-hit home run of the season
Memphis
•Adam Amar went 5-9 in the regional
•Adam Amar ends the season with an 11 game hitting streak
•Adam Amar had his 28th multihit game
•Adam Amar hit his 3rd home run in two regional games and now has 31 career homeruns
•Adam Amar is Memphis’ career NCAA tournmanet homerun leader with 3
•Most runs allowed in an NCAA regional game; previous was 17 runs scored by Minnesota in 1976
•First time Memphis has gone 0-2 in a regional
•Michael Murray ends his career with a 22 game hitting streak; one game shy of school record of 23 set by Mark Little in 1994
•Memphis finished the year 36-27, thus marking their second-straight season of improvement
Game 3 Quotes
Memphis Head Coach Daron Shoenrock
Opening statement
We didn’t get the pitching we needed today, we couldn’t find a way to hold them down. Austin Peay did a great job of answering back. I thought we made a little bit of a run there after the rain delay but we had too many times pitching behind the count and left them sitting on fastballs.
On status of the pitching staff:
I felt good up until we didn’t get a good start out of Ben (Grisham). That’s really the first non-quality start that he’s had in probably five, six, seven weeks. Just didn’t have the feel today, couldn’t find the strike zone and Austin Peay did a great job of capitalizing on that.
On the rain delay:
We didn’t have a great answer for their starting pitcher Reynolds. He had us baffled a little bit, but I felt we were going to score some runs. What the delay did is it allowed us to get a different arm in the game which changed the mometum and changed the look and it kind of did the same thing for us too. We went for our best reliever at that point, Mike Yokley, who’s had a tremendous year for us, it’s a little earlier, a little different role for him, a different fit. I think the rain delay got their guy out the way and allowed us to generate a little momentum but they generated it right back off a guy pitching a different type of role for us.
Memphis first baseman Adam Amar
Opening statement
It was just a rough game. Austin Peay played Vanderbilt very tough yesterday and they were feeding off that momentum, we had a tough loss to Michigan, I don’t think we came out flat, we gave it our all, but we just ran out of gas on the mound.
On playing from behind:
We just didn’t try to do too much. We knew we were down in a hole but you can’t hit a seven-run homerun so you’ve just got to chip away and that’s what we tried to do. We had the delay, came out and did everything to do to try get some runs on the board, and we scored four and were just hoping for a hold but Austin Peay did a great job competing in the box, and we just couldn’t get enough offense to stay in it.
Memphis shortstop Michael Murray
On scoring four runs after the delay:
That was a great job by us coming back and competing. Down 9-3, playing a shortened game at five innings, just to bounce back ike this giving us life, try end the season on a great note. Every time we answered they answered back, they did a great job you have to give credit to their team.
Austin Peay Head Gary McClure
Opening Statement
“I’m really proud of our team and very excited. It’s our first NCAA win in Austin Peay history in baseball and we got (win) No. 40 tonight. Our guys really came out after a really, really tough emotional loss. We talked after the game about coming out and we had the best we’ve been all here today and overcome all the emotion and everything else. Our guys did a good job of that and I’m really proud of them.”
On first Regional win in school history
It’s a building block, stepping stone, whatever you want to say. I think we turned our program a long time ago and I think we’ve continued to take steps and gotten to a point where we can win conference championships and make some regionals…We just felt like we had the team could make that next step and you’ve got to make it sometime if you’re going to continue to build. They just step up game after game. More than anything, they just expect to win and they’re proud to have Austin Peay on their chest.
On being a No. 4 seed
I don’t mean any disrespect to anybody out there. Nobody meant anything personal by any of it, but they you the things you’re supposed to do to be a good baseball team and then you go as a club and win 39 games and we won both our regular season and tournament championship in our conference. It’s a no-brainer, and yet we got sent here as a No. 4 seed. I didn’t want to just say that and then go two and out and these guys made it.
First baseman Jake Lane
On his team scoring six runs in the fifth
It’s pretty much the turning point in the game. You have to answer back them.
On his team winning its first ever regional game
It’s rare to get 40 wins, especially for an OVC school so we’re really proud of that.
Pitcher Jeff Lykins
On his team scoring six runs in the fifth
They answered for me so I knew I had to answer for them. They’ve done it for me all year.
