JACKSONVILLE – The Jacksonville State bats continued to stay hot on the opening weekend of the 2015 baseball season as the Gamecocks combined for 21 hits in a doubleheader sweep of Youngstown State on Saturday to close out the three-game series at Rudy Abbott Field on the JSU campus.
 
The Gamecocks posted a 9-4 win in the first game of the twinbill and rallied from a 5-1 deficit after an inning and a half to oust the Penguins, 10-5.  It marks the first time Jax State has opened a season with three consecutive wins since 2002.
 
After opening the season on Friday with a 13-1  win over YSU, the offensive numbers carried over in to Saturday as the Gamecocks scored six runs in the first four innings to take a 6-0 lead.  The JSU fourth highlighted the first contest as it plated four runs in the frame to open the game up.  It was a trio of newcomers that sparked JSU in the frame as freshmen Clayton Daniel, Hayden White and junior college transfer Elliott McCummings had solid at bats in the innings.  Daniel led off the inning with a bunt single, while White, who made his first career start behind the plate, drilled a one-out double.  After McCummings sacrifice fly chased Penguin starter, Jeremy Quinlan, JSU juniors Ty Pierce and Tyler Gamble plated a pair of runs with singles to left.
 
Junior Paschal Petrongolo, who went 6-for-10 on the first weekend of the season and 3-for-6 in the two Saturday games, also had one of his two hits in the frame.  The Blackwood, New Jersey-native has recorded a hit in the last 16 games dating back to the last 13 games of the 2014 season.  He also registered his first triple of the season for his other hit in the contest.
 
Freshman shortstop Taylor Hawthorne was impressive in the opener with a 3-for-5 day at the plate and turned in stellar defensive plays on defense. 
 
For the second-straight game, the Gamecocks had stellar numbers on the mound.  Senior Tony Urban (1-0) picked up the win after tossing 5.1 and scattering five hits in his first outing of the year.  Urban posted five strikeouts on his pitching line.  Sophomore Joe McGuire had three of JSU's nine strikeouts in the contest after throwing 2.2 innings and surrendered just one hit.  Freshman Jake Walsh, from Melboune, Florida, finished the game in the ninth after the Penguins scratched the scoreboard for the first time in the game with four runs in the final frame.
 
YSU carried the momentum it picked up at the plate in the final plate appearance of the first game as it would take an early 1-0 lead after the first inning and touch Jax State starter Colton Campbell for four runs on a pair of hits in 1.2 innings of work.  After JSU equalized in the bottom half of the first, the Penguins took a 5-1 lead after their first two at-bats.
 
The Gamecocks exploded for five runs in its second plate appearance to take a 6-4 lead – one it would not relinquish thanks to solid relief pitching from junior Graham Officer.  The JSU second was keyed by junior Gavin Golsan, who had an RBI double in the frame along with Ryan Sebra's two-run single to right.  The double in the third was just the beginning for the Trussville, Alabama product as he turned in an inside the park home run the following inning to extend the JSU lead to 8-5.  It is JSU's first inside the park home run since former Gamecock Michael Bishop recorded one last season in the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament last May against Tennessee Tech.
 
On the mound, Officer silenced the YSU bats over in his four innings of work. The Milton, Georgia reliever scattered six YSU hits and carded four strikeouts to earn the win.  JSU Head Coach Jim Case inserted Michael McCreless and Travis Stout in the final three innings.
The Gamecocks will have a two-game midweek series with the Blazers of UAB on Tuesday and Wednesday.  On Tuesday, Jax State and UAB will square off in Birmingham at 3 p.m.  The two teams will face off on Wednesday at Rudy Abbott Field with first pitch at 3 p.m.