NASHVILLE – The Jacksonville State softball team scored early and often on Sunday afternoon, when the Gamecocks claimed the series from Belmont with a 14-1 mercy-rule win over the Bruins.
 
The Gamecocks (32-15, 15-6 Ohio Valley Conference) plated two runs in the first and five in the second to take control of the game and never looked back. They would score in every inning but one, including another five-run frame in the fifth before finishing off the Bruins (11-31, 6-15 OVC) in five innings.
 
Eight different Gamecocks recorded at least one hit and six players had at least one RBI in the win that came one day after the two teams split a doubleheader to open the three-game series.
 
Sophomore Stephanie Lewis and junior Cadi Oliver each went 2-for-2 at the plate, while Lewis and junior Ella Denes each drove in three runs in the game. Senior Savannah Sloan also had a pair of hits and drove in a run.
 
Sophomore Taylor West (11-4) grabbed the win in the circle for the Gamecocks after holding the Bruins to a run on four hits in a five-inning complete game. She also struck out two in the win.
 
Katie Clancy (1-6) suffered the loss after giving up six runs on six hits and three walks in 2 1/3 innings. Carolyn Snodgress allowed three runs on three hits and three walks in 1/2/3 innings, while Shelby Willard gave up the other five runs on two hits and three walks in one inning in the circle.
 
Lewis got JSU on the board early with a two-out, two-run single in the first, and a two-run triple from Denes in the second made it a 4-0 game. Sloan followed with an RBI double and senior Sara Borders cleared the bases with a two-run homer that gave JSU a 7-0 lead in the second.
 
Borders' homer was her second of the weekend and her seventh in the past eight games. The Alexandria, Ala., native now leads the team and is tied for the OVC lead with 16 and runs her career total to 47, second to Daniela Pappano's school record of 53.
 
Belmont got one run in the second, but JSU got two in the third on a bases-loaded hit by pitch of Oliver and a Lewis sac fly to make it a 9-1 game. An Oliver RBI double, an RBI single from Melanie Steer and a sac fly from Denes highlighted the five-run fifth that put the deciding 14-1 score on the board.
 
The Gamecocks will wrap up the 2015 regular season at home this wek, starting with a 6 p.m. game against UAB on Tuesday at University Field. They will host Eastern Kentucky for a three-game series starting with a 1 p.m. doubleheader on Saturday and wrapping up with a 1 p.m. single game on Sunday. Sunday will be Senior Day, which will see the Gamecocks' three seniors honored in a pregame ceremony.