DELAND, Fla. - Looking for revenge after a mid-season series loss at home, the Stetson Hatters took care of business on Thursday morning, knocking off the #1 seeded Austin Peay Govenors in a 5-3 win. In fact, the Hatters never trailed in the contest after taking a 3-0 lead in the first inning. The win was their first of the tournament but it's enough to advance the Hatters forward as they own the tiebreaker.

"Yeah, I mean just a gutsy performance by everybody, you know, we went up quick in the beginning and then they came back. Being that we're co-champions with them, it's nice to win that game because it solidifies what we believed which was we were the better team and we're a good team," said Head Coach Steve Trimper. "McAtee was unbelievable out of the bullpen, we just stuck right with him, but now onto the next, we're trying to play for an NCAA Regional bid so just have to keep playing hard."

Senior Aric McAtee, now 3-3 on the season, got the win out of the bullpen for Stetson, who rises to a season record of 38-20. The right-hander dazzled on the mound, tossing 4.2 shutout innings while giving up only two hits, no walks and striking out two. Junior Dylan Jacobs started the ballgame and went 4.1 innings, surrendering three runs, one earned, on six hits, walking two and striking out three.

Offensively, the Hatters were led by sophomore shortstop Lorenzo Meola, who went 2-for-4 on the day with a double and two RBIs. Freshman center fielder Kyle Jones put together a noteworthy performance at the dish as well, going 3-for-4 with a double and a walk. Sophomore Isaiah Barkett provided some assistance to Stetson as well, putting together two hits in five trips to the plate while adding an RBI.

The Hatters struck first, scoring three runs in the top of the first inning. Gio Cueto put the Hatters on the board with a double to left field to score Jones, who led off the game with a single through the left side. Landon Moran and Meola then hit back-to-back RBI singles to put Stetson up 3-0 early.

The Governors then tied the ballgame in the bottom side of the first before the Hatters came back to reclaim their advantage in the fifth inning. Stetson scored once on an RBI infield single off the bat of Barkett, which brought the Hatters lead to 4-3.

Stetson kept Austin Peay scoreless before building their lead to 5-3 in the eighth inning. The Hatters added a run on Meola's one-out RBI double to deep left field. The score remained 5-3 for the rest of the game, as McAtee recorded the punchout to end the game with a 1-2-3 inning.

The Hatters out-hit the Governors at a 9-8 clip and drew four walks from the Governors pitching staff.

"We knew we had to win a game and we knew that we played very well the other night but they're wasn't much to say to get them ready for today, this team is pretty self motivated at the end of the year like that," said Trimper.