Clarksville, Tennessee – Austin Peay State University's baseball team opens their home calendar with a four-game series against Purdue Fort Wayne starting Saturday, Feb. 22.

The home opener, originally scheduled for Friday, was delayed due to inclement weather throughout the week. Game one at the Hand will begin at 1 p.m. Saturday. A doubleheader is scheduled for a noon start time Sunday, with the series finale on Monday at noon. All game times are in central time.

Series History

This will be the second time that Austin Peay and Purdue Fort Wayne's baseball teams have met face-to-face. The Mastodons and the Governors' last and only meeting was in the 2023 season, where Austin Peay took three of the four games played in Evansville, Indiana. Purdue Fort Wayne finished the 2024 season with a 19-37 overall record and went 11-19 in conference play to finish fifth in the Horizon League.

NOTES AND NOTABLES

Flipping the home opener script: Austin Peay looks to break a seven-game losing streak in home openers with Saturday's opener at the Hand. The last time the governors won a home opener was in 2017 in a blowout 9-2 victory against Youngstown State. In that game, Austin Peay, as a team, hit four home runs. The bullpen was also spot on that day, where Austin Peay Hall of Famer Alex Robles (2014-17) started the game and went five innings with nine strikeouts, allowing two runs on three hits.

SCOUTING THE MASTODONS

THE OSTERHOUSE

• Justin Osterhouse was a key part of the 2024 roster for Purdue Fort Wayne and looks to do the same this year as a preseason All-Horizon League pick by Perfect Game. Coming into the weekend, he bats .417 after going 5-for-12 in three games against No. 2 LSU.

HIT OR MISS

• Although Osterhouse had five singles last weekend, he also had the same number of strikeouts. Osterhouse struck out just 37 times last year, yet he is currently on pace to strike out 63 times this season if he continues to strike out at the rate of last weekend.

BOUNCE BACK ON THE MOUND

• Two of the three starters on the mound for the Mastodons threw 4.0+ innings, but each allowed five earned runs. It will be a test to see how the 'Dons pitching staff bounces back after facing a tough LSU offense, and coming to face another team of hot bats at the Hand.

A FEW TO WATCH

• Justin Osterhouse and Nick Hockemeyer were both named to the 2025 Preseason All-Horizon Team by Perfect Game.
• Hockemeyer had a big year with Dallas College Richland in 2024, batting .389 with a .478 on-base percentage and a .568 slugging percentage with 32 extra-base hits and 65 RBI.

PROSPECT LIST

• D1Baseball.com picked Justin Osterhouse as the No. 3 prospect in the Horizon League in the 2026 MLB Draft. Drew Helton (No. 3), Trent Murphy (No. 4), and Tyson Greenwood (No. 8) were all picked as Impact Freshman in the league.

HANDFUL OF HOT BATS

• In last weekend's MLB Desert Invitational and road game at Arizona State, four Governors batted over .300, and as a team, they hit six homers. Five came during the three-game tournament, which led all eight teams that were participants. The biggest homer came from the bat of Nathan Barksdale, who hit a game-securing grand slam in the fifth inning of the 8-5 victory over Grand Canyon University on Sunday, Feb. 16. In the game, he went 4-for-4 and was a double shy of the cycle. His home run was his first since April 10, 2022, when the Governors played at UT Martin, which was also coincidentally a game-securing homer.
• Gus Freeman currently leads the Govs in batting average (.357), slugging percentage (.714), on-base percentage (.471), doubles (2), walks (2), and hit-by-pitches (1).
• Outfielder Cameron Nickens comes into the weekend series hitting .235 with a three-game hit streak while hitting two home runs in that span. He currently leads the team in homers

TRIO OF ARMS

• Austin Peay got a glimpse of what their weekend rotation will shape out to be after three Governor arms shut down their opponents.
• Lyndon Glidewell started and went four innings against Grand Canyon last weekend, only allowing one run while striking out a pair of batters, walking four, and holding batters to a .154 batting average.
• Gavin Braunecker came in for Glidewell against Grand Canyon and finished out the game to earn the win after throwing five innings with five strikeouts and a walk and allowing four runs. He is looking like a reliable southpaw for the Governors staff this season.
• Cody Airington got the nod for the start against Arizona State on Monday last week. He suffered a minor ankle injury prior to the weekend and had a later start date. Due to that, he was unable to go much longer in his outing against the Sun Devils after throwing 4.1 innings. He struck out five batters and allowed just two runs on three hits.

TICKET INFORMATION

Single-game tickets are available now on Ticketmaster.com.

BROADCAST INFORMATION

Fans unable to attend can listen to the opening weekend series on ESPN Clarksville 104.1 FM in the Clarksville area or through the TuneIn app on their mobile device. Van Stokes, who is in his 25th season as the Govs play-by-play voice, will have the call all weekend.

All games will be streamed on ESPN+. Ethan Schmidt will have the call on Saturday. Berry Gresham will have the call for the Sunday doubleheader, joined by Phil Wood, who will be the analyst. Alex Gould will have the call for ESPN on Monday to close out the series.

FOLLOW ALONG

Keep up to date with all Governors baseball on the official website of Austin Peay Athletics - www.LetsGoPeay.com. Follow @GovsBSB on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram for all Governors Baseball updates and ticket information as they happen.