NASHVILLE: Caught spike dooms Governors

By Chris Lee - June 02, 2007

In the post-game press conference, Austin Peay coach Gary McClure said that reliever Ben Wiltshire, whose trouble keeping his balance led to Wiltshire's 11th-inning error that gave Vanderbilt a 2-1 win, was due to a spike that Wiltshire caught either in the grass or the mount.

With Ryan Flaherty on third and two outs, Shea Robin hit a ball back to Wiltshire, who moved towards the first base line to field it. But he stumbled fielding the ball and tapped it to second, where second baseman J.B. Gilbert couldn't make the play in time at first.

In games like last night's, which featured 22 strikeouts from Vandy pitchers David Price and Casey Weathers, it's often the little things that make the difference in a win or loss. Perhaps Vandy was getting a little luck back from the baseball gods after Pedro Alvarez ripped down the line a few batters earlier that more often than not would have been a game-winning double, but instead turned into a 6-3 double play.

Anyway, this afternoon's elimination game between APSU and Memphis will be a contrast in styles; APSU wins with pitching and defense, and Memphis by simply outslugging everyone.