BOX SCORE

JACKSONVILLE – Junior Hillary Downs belted two home runs including a walk off shot in the seventh inning to propel the Jacksonville State softball team to a 4-3 win over Southeastern Conference foe Ole Miss on Thursday at University Field.

Downs, a native of Childersburg, Ala., hit Becky Nye's 1-0 pitch to the opposite field and a crowd of 401 watched it curl around the foul pole to give the Gamecocks (32-9) their 15th straight win and the season sweep over the Rebels (22-26). The game winner came two innings after she hit a two-run shot off of the tin roof that covers the team's batting cages beyond the right field fence, making her just the second player in school history to record more than one two-homer game in a career. She also hit two home runs on Saturday in an 8-0 win over Tennessee Tech.

With JSU trailing by three after Ole Miss took advantage of four JSU fielding errors to get two unearned runs in the early innings, Downs hit her towering first home run and was followed by a solo blast from junior Chrissy O'Neal that tied the game at 3-3 in the home half of the fifth. Senior Karla Pittman held the Ole Miss offense at bay the rest of the way to set the stage for Downs' game winner.

Pittman (13-1) went the distance to win her 11th-straight decision. The North Canton, Ohio, native allowed three runs, one earned, on five hits while striking out five in seven innings of work. The earned run she allowed in the fifth was the first she has allowed since April 4, snapping a stretch of 34 consecutive innings without an earned run.

Downs went 2-for-3 to lead the Gamecocks at the plate, while O'Neal, junior Nikki Prier, senior Jackie Jarman and freshman Meredith Sellers each had one hit in the win.

The Rebels had five players scatter one hit apiece with Courtnie Ghinaudo, Ashley Dowdy and Alise Doubt each driving in a run. Becky Nye (14-18) took the loss in the circle for Ole Miss after giving up four runs on six hits in 6 1/3 innings of work. She struck out six and walked one in the losing effort.

The first-place Gamecocks travel to Charleston, Ill., this weekend, where they will face Eastern Illinois in a three-game Ohio Valley Conference series. The set will begin with a doubleheader at 1 p.m. on Saturday and will conclude with a single game at 1 p.m. on Sunday.