BIRMINGHAM – The Jacksonville State baseball team completed its midweek spring break sweep of a pair of in-state rivals with a 9-6 win over Samford on Wednesday night at Joe Lee Griffin Field.
 
After disposing of Troy, 8-1, on Tuesday in Troy, the win over the Bulldogs was Jax State fifth in a row and the eighth in the last 10 games.  The Gamecocks improved to 14-8 overall, while Samford fall to 9-13 on the season.  After its two-game road trip to Troy and Birmingham, the Gamecocks return to Rudy Abbott Field for a non-conference three-game series with the Falcons of Air Force.
 
The Gamecocks took advantage of the Bulldogs' pitching staff ineffectiveness early as the seven SU hurlers issued eight walks and four wild pitches.  JSU took a 4-0 lead in the second inning off of just one hit in the frame.  A pair of wild pitches by SU starter Jake Greer moved runners in to scoring position.  The first run of the game came by way of a wild pitch as Paul Angel scored on a ball that got past the catcher.  Angel highlighted the Gamecocks' nine-hit night with a 3-for-4 night playing in his home town of Birmingham.  The lone hit in the frame came off the bat of junior Paschal Petrongolo as he laced a single up the middle, scoring a pair of JSU runs.  Petrongolo aided in JSU getting its fourth run of the inning as he managed to stay in a run down long enough to score the runner from third.

The Bulldogs sliced the JSU lead in half with a pair of run in the home half of the second.  Danny Rodriguez had a fielders choice RBI, followed by a double down the left field line by Richard Greene.  Greene was 3-for-4 on the night and drove in four runs.
JSU posted its second four-run inning in the fourth to expand the lead out to 8-2.  After Josh Bobo reached on a fielding error, freshman Hayden White made the Bulldogs pay for the miscue with a two-run blast to right field for his first career home run in a Gamecock uniform.  White, from Prattville, Alabama, also started a key double play as JSU got a strikeout and White threw out a runner trying to steal second in the fifth.

SU responded once again with two runs in the fourth as Austin Edens and Greene had RBI singles in the inning. 
Jax State added its final run of the contest in the sixth with a key two-out walk by Bobo.  The manufactured run started after Ryan Sebra reached via an error and eventually scored on the walk.  SU made things interesting with two runs in the sixth as Greene plated his second and third RBI with a single to left.

The Gamecocks' pitching staff was solid throughout, including the middle relief efforts of Grant Chandler and Joe McGuire.  Chandler, a freshman from Madison, Alabama, tossed two complete innings after coming in relief of JSU starter, Jack Pierce.  Chandler was issued his second win of the season.  McGuire, who was an offensive threat at Troy on Tuesday, pitched the seventh and eighth and held the Bulldogs hitless and recorded four strikeouts.

Senior Travis Stout earned his sixth save of the season and 38^th of his career with a clean ninth inning.  Stout's 38 saves puts him second on the NCAA's career saves active list behind David Berg of UCLA, who has 40 career saves.

The Gamecocks will step out of Ohio Valley Conference action this weekend, hosting the Falcons of the Air Force Academy in a three-game series at Rudy Abbott Field.  The weekend series begins on Friday at 6 p.m.  Admission is free for JSU students and fans ages 18 and under. It will also be Military Appreciation Weekend, where all active military and veterans will receive free admission for them and their families at all three games.