FINAL STATS

JACKSONVILLE – Daniel Watts had six strikeouts in seven strong innings on the mound to lead Jacksonville State to a 7-2 win over Eastern Illinois as the Gamecocks gave JSU head coach Jim Case his 350th career win.
 
Watts (5-6) scattered five hits and did not walk a batter to earn the win for the Gamecocks. Troy Barton (8-5) gave up five runs and seven hits to suffer the loss for Eastern Illinois.
 
Jax State (25-28, 16-10 OVC) gave Watts an early lead after Kyle Bluestein drove in two runs and Erik Underwood added another run in the first inning to give the Gamecocks a 3-0 advantage.
 
Andrew Bishop led off the fourth with a single and later came around to score on Kyle Stone's sacrifice fly as the Gamecocks extended the lead to 4-0.
 
Ben Waldrip then led off the fifth inning with his second career triple and Bluestein followed with a double to right field to score Waldrip and give Jax State a 5-0 lead.
 
Scott Underwood led off the seventh with a single and Sam Eberle slugged his ninth home run of the season to push the Gamecock lead to 7-0. Eberle extended his reached base streak to 40 games after also drawing three walks for the second straight game.
 
Eastern Illinois scored its two runs in the eighth inning after Caleb Howell and Cameron Berra both reached on one-out singles, and T.J. McManus then hit a two-out double to left center to score Howell and Berra for the final margin.
 
Erik Underwood, Scott Underwood, Waldrip and Bluestein each had two hits to lead the Gamecocks, while Bluestein led the team with three RBI, while Eberle drove in two runs. Howell finished the game 3-for-4 to lead the Panthers.
 
The two teams will play the rubber game of the series on Saturday with the winner claiming the No. 3 seed in next week's Ohio Valley Conference Tournament. Game time is set for 2 p.m. at Rudy Abbott Field.