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JACKSON, Tenn. – Eastern Kentucky will begin play at the 2013 Ohio Valley Conference Baseball Tournament on Wednesday.  EKU is one of the six teams in the 11-team conference to qualify for the postseason tournament.

The No. 5 seeded Colonels will face No. 4 seed Jacksonville State at 4 p.m. ET at the Ballpark at Jackson in Jackson, Tenn.  The Ballpark at Jackson is home of the Jackson Generals of the Southern League.  The Generals are the Class AA affiliate of the Seattle Mariners.

Eastern Kentucky concluded the regular season with a 20-32 record and a 16-13 mark against OVC teams.  Jacksonville State is 32-24 overall and 22-8 in league play.  The Gamecocks won two of the three games between the two teams earlier this season. 

The top four teams in the OVC were separated by just two games.  Tennessee Tech (24-6) captured the regular season title by 1.5 games over Austin Peay (22-7).  Belmont and Jacksonville State finished tied for third, two games behind TTU.  Fifth place EKU finished 3.5 games in front of sixth place Southeast Missouri State (13-17).

No. 3 Belmont will face No. 6 SEMO on Wednesday as well.  The highest seeded team among the first round winners will play No. 2 seed Austin Peay on Thursday at 4 p.m. ET.  The lowest seeded team among the first round winners will play top seed Tennessee Tech at 8 p.m. ET.  The two losing teams from the first round will play an elimination game at 12 p.m. ET on Thursday.

After starting OVC play 2-7, EKU won 14 of its last 20 conference games.  Of the six losses during that span, none were by more than five runs and four were by three runs or less.  In its last 20 OVC games, EKU out-scored its opponents 186-113.

EKU’s recent starting line-ups have featured four freshmen – Doug Teegarden (3B), Kyle Nowlin (LF), Kenny Hostrander (2B) and Luke Wurzelbacher (SS).  Wurzelbacher has made 16 straight starts and has hit safely in 11 of those.

Right-hander Brent Cobb will start Wednesday’s game for the Colonels.  Cobb is 6-6 this season with a 3.83 ERA.  He is 5-3 with a 3.16 ERA against conference teams.  Cobb tossed his first career complete game, and shutout, at Eastern Illinois (May 3) and no-hit Murray State (May 16) over six innings of work.  He has had five straight quality starts, three of which he’s pitched eight or more innings.

Left-hander Casey Antley will start for Jacksonville State on Wednesday.  Antley is 6-4 this season with a 4.63 ERA. 

These two pitchers faced each other on May 11 in Richmond.  Cobb allowed four runs, three of which were earned, over six innings.  He did not walk a batter and struck out three.  Antley gave up two runs on five hits in seven innings of work.  He walked two and struck out seven.  The Gamecocks won the game 9-4.

Eastern Kentucky has won four tournament titles, but has lost six straight OVC Tournament games.  The Colonels are 3-10 in the tournament since 2006.