NASHVILLE – Paschal Petrongolo had a pair of hits and drove in two runs to lead Jacksonville State to a 6-5 win over Belmont as the Gamecocks clinched the Ohio Valley Conference series on Saturday afternoon.
 
Jacksonville State improves to 26-19 overall and 14-9 in the OVC, while Belmont falls to 18-27-1, 8-14-1 in the league.
 
Michael Mason (5-1) had three strikeouts and allowed two hits in 1 2/3 innings of relief, while Travis Stout recorded the final five outs to earn his 11th save of the season. Chase Cunningham (4-6) got stuck with the loss after giving up the go-ahead run in 3 2/3 innings of relief.
 
Jax State jumped out to an early lead after scoring three runs on four hits in the first inning as Petrongolo, Ryan Sebra and Andrew Bishop each drove in a run to give JSU a 3-0 lead.
 
The Bruins answered with two runs after Matt Beaty and Nick Egli each drove in a run to cut the lead to 3-2. Belmont tied the game in the third inning after Drew Ferguson hit a solo home run to right field to tie the game at 3-3.
 
Belmont took its first lead of the series in the fifth inning after Alec Diamond had a two-out double and came in to score on Beaty's single to right field to give BU a 4-3 lead.
 
Jax State answered in the sixth inning after Andrew Bishop scored on Gavin Golsan's single to left field, and pinch-runner Peyton Williams scored on Eddie Mora-Loera's infield grounder as the Gamecocks took a 5-4 lead.
 
The Bruins tied the game at 5-5 in the seventh on a RBI single by Ritchie to score Beaty, but the Gamecocks battled back to take the lead for good in the eighth inning.
 
Micheal Bishop reached second after the Bruins could not handle his infield pop-up and Griff Gordon was intentionally walked. Petrongolo then drilled a ball to the centerfield wall that was a ground rule double to score Bishop for the final margin.
 
Gordon, Petrongolo, Michael Bishop and Andrew Bishop each had two hits to lead the Gamecocks, while Beaty finished with three hits to lead Belmont.
 
The Gamecocks will be looking for the sweep on Sunday afternoon in the series-finale. Game time is set for 1 p.m. at Rose Park, and the game will be carried on the JSU radio network.