MONTGOMERY, Ala.—Paul Vasquez hit two home runs and had five RBI to lead top seed Auburn University Montgomery to a 13-3 win over eighth seeded Reinhardt College in the final first round game of the Southern States Athletic Conference baseball tournament.Vasquez and Junior Kelley hit home runs on consecutive pitches in the first inning for AUM and the hits kept coming for AUM.  They finished the game with 17 hits on the day.  Kelley also had a big game with three hits including his 11th home run and two RBI.
 
AUM scored four runs in the second and three in the sixth with the final two runs in the bottom of the seventh coming on Vasquez’s second homer of the game and his ninth of the season.
 
Not to be left out, Allen Ponder also had a big game, going four for four at the plate with an RBI coming on his team-high 12th home run of the season in the sixth inning.  Matt Keel also had two hits and two RBI in the game.
 
Brett Bowen (4-0) was the starter for the Senators and pitched extremely well.  He had five three up and three down innings and only ran into trouble in the top of the sixth inning when he gave up three runs on four hits.  Bowen struck out seven in going the distance, as he recorded a strikeout in each inning.
 
“Brett had great life on his fastball and did a great job of jamming hitters,” head coach Q.V. Lowe said.  “The back-to-back home runs in the first inning got the dugout going and the tougher the situation the better they (Vasquez and Kelley) hit.”
 
AUM (44-9) moved up to their highest ranking in several years as they moved up to third today.  They will face Faulkner University in the second round tomorrow at 7 p.m.  Reinhardt will play Southern Wesleyan University in an elimination game tomorrow at 1 p.m.
 
“I won’t lie to you, it brings a little something extra to the tournament when AUM and Faulkner play tomorrow night,” Lowe said.