As you've likely heard, we don't have any live-action contests to cover at LetsGoPeay.com right now. What we do have is free time; oodles and oodles of free time. Enough free time to swap oodles of emails with various people who would know to create a snapshot of the 10 best players in Austin Peay baseball history. The top dog is the greatest pitcher in program history who proved it on the biggest possible stage.
Shawn Kelley had the most outstanding single-game performance, given the stakes and the opponent, in Austin Peay history when he dueled David Price to a draw in the famous 2007 NCAA Regional contest at Vanderbilt. That performance is as timeless as anything Fly Williams, Red Roberts and other revered legends ever did; it will remain a beacon in history long after the rest of us are gone.
It also casts a long shadow over everything else Kelley did in an Austin Peay uniform. And those achievements are legion and should be celebrated.
A Louisville native, Kelley arrived at Austin Peay beset by elbow trouble, leading to a lost 2003 and highly monitored 2004. But in 2005, Kelley was unleashed and began burnishing his credentials as a big-game hurler, earning Ohio Valley Conference All-Tournament honors for a complete-game semifinal win against Jacksonville State to help the Govs earn that season's tournament title.
In 2006, Kelley was again an all-tournament performer with yet another complete-game outing, pairing that with a 3.30 ERA despite battling injuries all season. A graduate that May, Kelley faced a choice, one that would ultimately define his career: come back for one more season or move on?
Kelley came back and turned in the greatest single-season performance in Austin Peay history. The OVC Pitcher of the Year went 11-3 overall, striking out 82 while walking just 11 in a league-record 127.2 innings pitched. He tied the program single-season record with eight complete games and compiled a 2.40 ERA, second only to Lee Ridenhour's 2013 among Austin Peay starters this century.
In the OVC Tournament, Kelley threw another complete game to earn yet another All-Tournament nod—the only player in program history with three All-Tournament honors. Then came the fabled appearance against Price and the Commdores in Nashville, with Kelley going 10 innings with nine strikeouts, no walks and just five hits allowed. Kelley took the no-decision that day, but it was a jumping off point for both he and the Govs—Kelley would be a 13th-round pick by the Mariners that summer, while Austin Peay would parlay that success against the Commodores to its very first tournament win the next day.
Kelley embarked on a lengthy career after Austin Peay; by 2009 he was in the big leagues, where he would remain for the next decade with stints in Seattle, New York, San Diego, Washington, Oakland and Texas.
