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LEADING OFF

The Ohio Valley Conference regular-season title will be up for grabs as Austin Peay hosts Jacksonville State in a matchup of the league's co-leaders, Thursday-Saturday.

This weekend's series is the first final weekend matchup of the league leaders to decide the championship since 2015. The series winner will not only win the regular-season title, but also will claim the coveted No. 1 seed in next week's OVC Baseball Championship in Marion, Illinois.

Austin Peay enters the weekend playing its best baseball of the season, posting a 15-5 mark since its last series loss at Eastern Kentucky, April 5-6. The Governors are hitting .345 as a team and averaging 9.7 runs per game in that 20-game stretch and have posted a .981 fielding percentage.

Jacksonville Sate has won 10 of its last 11 games. The Gamecocks have leaned on their pitching staff which has posted a 2.82 ERA during those 11 games. The JSU offense has averaged 7.4 runs per game and is batting .282 over the same period.

FIRST HACKS

• During its current four-game win streak, Austin Peay is batting .442 (77-174) and averaging an unfathomable 17.0 runs per game. The Govs own a .724 slugging percentage with 19 doubles and nine home runs.
• Senior outfielder Aaron Campbell has qualified for the NCAA national rankings, joining with a .380 batting average that is 40th in Division I and second in the OVC. He also owns a league-leading .475 on-base percentage that is 53rd nationally.
• Senior catcher David Martinez' .360 batting average is 10th among NCAA catchers (88th overall) and sixth among all OVC hitters.
• Center fielder Garrett Spain reached base in the first 43 games of his collegiate career – the third longest streak in APSU history. His .342 batting average ranks 14th and his 48 RBI ranks 11th among Division I freshmen.
• Junior right fielder Parker Phillips hit his 20th home run of 2019 at Tennessee, May 7, breaking the APSU single-season record he set last season. Currently, his 21 home runs are ranked fifth nationally and he ranks 25th among Division I hitters with an OVC-best 58 RBI.
• Phillips is the sixth hitter in OVC history to hit 50 or more home runs. He currently has 52 career homers, third-most in OVC history.
• Freshman designated hitter Matt Joslin has been the right man in the right spot in 2019. He is batting .692 with 20 RBI in 14 bases-loaded opportunities this season, including a walk-off grand slam against Southern Illinois, April 16.
• Freshman third baseman Gino Avros has a hit in 15 of his last 20 games, batting .346 (28-81) with 24 runs scored. He has boosted his average 90 points thanks to the burst.
• Redshirt senior shortstop Garrett Kueber has eight multi-hit outings in his last 13 games, including a five-hit outing against WKU, Tuesday. In those 13 games, he is batting .481 (25-52) with three home runs, 12 RBI and 20 runs scored.
• Junior utility man Malcolm Tipler is batting .500 (8-16) with seven RBI over the last four games with three doubles and a home run.
• Sophomore first baseman John McDonald has started all four games during the Govs current four-game hot streak. He is batting .375 (6-16) with two doubles and four walks.
• Senior catcher Alex Sala has hit a home run in each of his last two official at-bats. He is batting .368 (7-19) with three extra base hits in his last six starts.

TOEING THE RUBBER

• The Govs hold a formidable 1-2 punch on weekends with left-handers Josh Rye and Jacques Pucheu combining to go 11-4 in their 18 OVC starts with a 2.98 ERA. Pucheu is ranked first among OVC starters in OVC-only ERA (2.45) and league victories (6) with Rye ranked 10th in ERA (3.68) and second in wins (5).
• Since April's start, Rye has a 2.14 ERA in six starts with 4-0 record. He has not allowed a run in three of those six outings and recorded 34 strikeouts in 33.2 innings.
• Pucheu has swung back and forth over his last eight outings, following an outing with one or fewer earned runs with a multi-earned run outing. He did not allow a run at Eastern Illinois, going five innings in an outing shortened by the Govs prodigious 29-run outburst.
• Right-hander Ryan Kouba has made the last two Game 3 starts, winning each game. He has a 2.00 ERA and held opponents to a .181 batting average in his starts.
• With its 12 strikeouts against WKU, Tuesday, the Govs pitching staff set a program record for single-season strikeouts. The 2019 staff's 473 Ks broke the program record of 466 Ks set in 2013 and 2017.

GOVS vs. GAMECOCKS

• Jacksonville State has won the last two meetings in the series, including a 5-1 victory to end Austin Peay's 2018 campaign at last season's OVC tournament.
• Prior to those last two outings, the Govs won six straight against the Gamecocks, its longest win streak in the series.
• JSU owns a 30-27 lead in the series, 11 of those meetings coming in the OVC tournament, quickly making this series one of the league's best rivalries.