CLARKSVILLE, TN – For the first time since 2013, Austin Peay State University’s baseball team clinched a conference title. Fittingly, designated hitter Lyle Miller-Green and center fielder John Bay hit home runs in a Governors 8-3 victory against North Alabama Friday night on Joe Maynard Field at Raymond C. Hand Park. With the win, Austin Peay clinched a share of the 2024 Atlantic Sun Conference regular-season title.
Under second-year head coach Roland Fanning and in only its second season in the ASUN, Austin Peay (35-18, 20-9 ASUN) became the first ASUN team to reach 20 wins and holds a one-game lead with only one regular-season game remaining. It is the Governors’ first conference title since a storied “Three Peay-t” that saw APSU win conference titles in 2011, 2012, and 2013. Austin Peay also clinches the overall No. 1 seed in next week’s ASUN Conference Tournament.
Austin Peay and North Alabama close the 2024 regular season with a 2 p.m. Saturday game at The Hand. With a win Saturday, the Governors would clinch the ASUN title outright.
Bay and Miller-Green’s home runs were part of a five-run second inning that broke the game open. Bay’s leadoff home run was the Governors’ 143rd homer of 2024, breaking the ASUN Conference record set last season by FGCU. Catcher Gus Freeman doubled to drive in a run and then scored on an error. Miller-Green capped the scoring with a two-run home run that was his 29th of the season.
North Alabama (17-35-1, 9-19-1 ASUN) would muster a pair of runs in the third inning. The Lions opened the inning with a double and a walk, and left fielder Andrew Knight drove in both runners with a double, cutting the deficit to 6-3.
Austin Peay would tack on runs in the third and fourth innings, with shortstop Jon Jon Gazdar capping the game’s scoring with an RBI single in the fourth.
Afterwards, both teams pitching staffs settled in. Austin Peay starter Solomon Washington and relievers Josh Howitt, Tyler Hampu, and Titan Kennedy-Hayes supplied six scoreless innings. North Alabama reliever Justin Battle held the Govs scoreless over the final four innings.
Howitt (2-2) picked up the win after 2.1 innings of scoreless relief that saw him strike out three batters. Washington went four innings and allowed three runs in his first ASUN start but did not factor into the decision.
Miller-Green went 3-for-3 with three RBI and two runs scored to pace the Govs’ 11-hit offensive attack. Bay and right fielder Jaden Brown had two hits.
Knight led UNA with his 2-for-4, two-RBI effort. Lions starting pitcher Jacob Bradshaw (3-4) lost after allowing eight runs on 10 hits over four-plus innings.