JACKSONVILLE – Timely hitting and Whitney Gillespie's complete game helped the Jacksonville State softball team wrapped up its non-conference schedule with a 3-1 win over UAB on Tuesday night at University Field.
 
Gillespie allowed just one run in the first inning and then kept the Blazers (30-16) off of the board the rest of the way, while the Gamecocks (32-15) gave her just enough support to sweep the season series from their in-state rival.
 
JSU answered the Blazers first-inning run with two in the home half of the frame and held on, getting key defensive plays and stranding seven Blazer runners. After a Hayley Davis RBI double put that first run on the board for UAB, JSU mounted a threat of its own.
 
A one-out single from Savannah Sloan started it, and a double to left center from Sara Borders followed. Borders' 55th career double, third-most in school history, extended her streak of consecutive games reaching base to 33, one that started on March 6 against Wright State.
 
Cadi Oliver was hit by Megan Smith's pitch to load the bases, the first of five hit batters for the Gamecocks on the night. Stephanie Lewis laced Smith's next pitch off the glove of a leaping Caitlin Attfield at shortstop to score Sloan and Borders then scored on a wild pitch to give JSU the early 2-1 lead.
 
UAB mounted threats, putting runners on in five of the last six innings, but the Gamecocks kept them off of the board. Gillespie (10-5) struck out four and got a few big plays by her defense to earn her third complete game of the year. She allowed the one run on eight hits and just one walk.
 
UAB seemed to put rallies together a few times, but freshman Emily Woodruff gunned Danii Fernandez at the plate to erase a leadoff error in the fifth. A heads up play from second baseman Jordan Bullock stopped Heather Pearson from stretching a leadoff single into a double in the sixth.
 
The Gamecocks put an insurance run on the board in the fifth on an Oliver single, her second of the game.
 
Smith (14-7) took the loss for UAB after allowing two runs on five hits and two hit batters in 2 1/3 innings. Cara Goodwin tossed the final 3 2/3 innings and allowed one run o two hits, two walks and three hit batters.
 
Oliver and Sloan each went 2-for-3 for the Gamecocks in the win, with Sloan scoring twice. Bullock and Borders each doubled for JSU in the win.
 
The Gamecocks will wrap up the 2015 regular season at home this weekend. 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.