FINAL STATS  |  OVC TOURNEY BRACKET

JACKSONVILLE – Ben Waldrip had four hits with two home runs, including a grand slam, to lead Jacksonville State to a 15-3 win over Eastern Illinois and the Ohio Valley Conference series sweep on Saturday.
 
Jacksonville State (26-28, 17-10 OVC) earns the No. 3 seed in next week's Ohio Valley Conference Tournament and will face No. 6 seed Southeast Missouri State at 7 p.m. on Wednesday. The Gamecocks won 2-of-3 vs the Redhawks during the regular season three weeks ago. EIU will face Morehead State in a battle of the 4-5 seeds at 3 p.m. on Wednesday.
 
Junior Hunter Rivers (5-3) scattered six hits over five innings to earn the win for the Gamecocks, while Christian Slazinik gave up six runs and walked four and was pulled in the first inning after recording just two outs to suffer the loss for the Panthers.
 
The Gamecocks jumped on Slazinik early and took a 6-0 lead in the first inning as Cal Lambert and Andrew Bishop each drove in a run and JSU took advantage of three Panther errors in the first inning.
 
Eastern Illinois (26-27, 15-11) scored a run in the second on a RBI double by Brant Valach and a run in the third on a sacrifice fly by Ryan Dineen to cut the lead to 6-2, but the Gamecocks got a run back in the fourth after Waldrip hit a solo home run over the right field fence.
 
The Panthers scored their final run in the fifth inning after Dineen hit a solo home run to right field to cut the JSU lead to 7-3, but the Gamecocks answered in the home half of the inning.
 
Sam Eberle and Waldrip each drove in a run to push the lead to 9-3, before the Gamecocks plated five runs in the eighth inning as Waldrip hit his 18th home run of the season with a grand slam for the final margin. Waldrip had a career week, batting .611 (11-for-18) with 10 runs scored two doubles, three home runs and eight RBI, while also drawing two walks and one hit-by-pitch.
 
Jax State finished with 17 hits in the game to mark the fifth straight game with double-digit hits. Waldrip finished 4-fof-5 and drove in six runs while scoring three runs to lead the Gamecocks, while Scott Underwood and Andrew Bishop each finished with three hits. Michael Bishop and Eberle each added two more hits, while Eberle extended his streak to 41 straight games of reaching base after hitting a double in the first inning. Erik Underwood extended his hitting streak to a season-best nine games with a single in the sixth inning.
 
Calbe Howell and Brant Valach led the Panthers with two hits each, while Dineen drove in two of the three Panther runs.