"The Redhawks just struck out their nemesis," blared Erik Sean, Southeast Missouri's longtime radio announcer, whose scream could be heard in the stands below in spacious Pringles Park in Jackson, Tennessee. "I just can't believe they got out Greg Bachman…he has just been a Redhawk killer his entire career."
It was Austin Peay's first game of the 2012 Ohio Valley Conference tournament. For one of the few times that season the Govs bullpen failed, allowing Southeast Missouri, with future Major Leaguer Shae Simmons on the mound, to take a 4-1 lead late. In the bottom of the 9th, the Governors scratched across two runs to narrow the margin to 4-3 and had the bases loaded with two outs. Up stepped Bachman, the Govs' third baseman and RBI leader. He worked the count to 2-2 but swung and missed at the pitch, dropping the regular-season OVC co-champs into the loser's bracket.
Seemingly that was the last time any OVC pitcher retired Bachman during the tournament. The Governors came out of the loser's bracket and won the second of three straight OVC tourney titles. Bachman, the Govs' senior leader, had four hits, including a tape-measure home run to left center in a park known to be pitcher-friendly, home-run resistant, in the next game against Jacksonville State, while also scoring the game-winning run. In a second elimination game—and another game versus SEMO—he made it back-to-back four-hit games along with four RBI to help propel the Govs into the OVC championship bracket against Eastern Illinois.
In the first championship round game, Saturday, he had a hit as the Govs won, 7-0, and in the Sunday championship game, he drove in the game's initial run in the first and scored the second in the same inning to give APSU an early 2-0 margin, a lead it would not relinquish in the 3-0 game.
Bachman was the unquestioned tourney MVP, going 12 of 22 (.545) with a double, home run and seven RBI plus playing superb defense at third. It was Austin Peay's second straight OVC tourney title and second straight NCAA tournament appearance. But his spectacular performance didn't end there. At the Eugene Regional, he went 9-of-17 from the plate, tallying at least two hits in all four games. He was named to Eugene All-Regional team for his efforts. Had it not been for blown umpire's call in the Govs' first game against Oregon, Bachman and the Governors may have done what Tennessee Tech did last spring and advance to a Super Regional.
Regardless, Bachman had the greatest postseason of any baseball player in Governors history—21 hits that translated to a batting average (.539) was more akin to a slow-pitch softball number than a baseball one.
Bachman's senior season was a culmination of a brilliant career, one that will culminate in his induction into the APSU Athletics Hall of Fame, Friday, January 25.
In 2008, the 5-9 Germantown product—known as Bach by most—was named to the OVC All-Freshman team after hitting .269 with 12 doubles and 32 RBI as a shortstop/third baseman. He again opened the 2009 campaign at shortstop before moving to third base permanently 14 games deep into the season. He batted an impressive .342 with a team-leading 10 home runs and 44 RBI—he also had 11 stolen bases. It was that season he initiated his reputation as a SEMO Redhawk killer, hitting two late-game home runs (three-run and two-run shots) in back-to-back innings.
But a shoulder injury and subsequent surgery robbed him of the entire 2010 season—it was no coincidence in Bachman's absence the Governors dropped to seventh in the OVC at 8-13 and barely over .500 overall. As a result of recovering from the injury and slowly regaining his batter's box timing, Bachman got off to a little bit of a sluggish start in 2011. Although he hit a respectable .312, it was OVC play that saw his performance explode. Bachman hit an almost ridiculous .424 during league play with 10 doubles, four home runs and 26 RBI, earning the first of two All-OVC second-team honors—two straight years he was voted second-team third base behind OVC Player of the Year, Trenton Moses. He batted .377 with six home runs and 35 RBI during April and May. Bachman completely put behind him the shoulder injury that cost him the previous season. He and infield left side mate Reed Harper were the only Govs to record hits in all three NCAA Atlanta Regional games, including the first-round stunner of host Georgia Tech.
That was a precursor to 2012, as Bachman enjoyed one of the finest individual overall seasons in Govs history. Even before the OVC tourney and Eugene Regional performances (and a season-ending 11-game hit streak where he batted 28-of-47, a .596 batting average, with 16 RBI and a .979 slugging percentage), Bachman was selected as APSU's Male Legends Award recipient as the most valuable male senior athlete.
In leading APSU to an overall 40-24 record and an OVC tourney title, he batted .351 with 93 hits that included 14 doubles and 16 home runs, ranking 15th nationally, while driving in 67 runs, ranked 10th nationally. His 157 total bases were ninth in Division I. For a second straight season he was named second-team All-OVC and earned honorable mention All-America by CollegeBaseballInsider.com. In the OVC elimination-game win against Southeast Missouri, he broke A.J. Ellis' record for career hits (263)—Ellis, the Dodgers catcher at the time, texted his congratulations after the game.
Bachman left APSU as the all-time leader in hits (276), RBI (188), total bases (444), doubles (62) and was second in runs scored (178). After hitting .269 as a freshman, he never was below the .300 mark the remaining three seasons.
If fellow Hall of Famer Nate Manning (1993-96) is considered the best third baseman in Austin Peay history, then Bachman is no worse than second best. In fact, if Manning is No. 1 at third, Bachman certainly could be considered 1A. Like Manning, he played four Governors seasons. At 6-2, 210, Manning certainly looked the part while at 5-9, 205 pounds, Bachman didn't have the classic infield corner body build, but one thing for sure, he simply was a baseball player, a Redhawk nemesis, an elite OVC performer and a deserving member of APSU Athletics Hall of Fame.
