CHARLESTON, Ill. – The Jacksonville State baseball team notched its seventh consecutive Ohio Valley Conference win on Thursday, fending off a late Eastern Illinois rally to record a 6-4 decision at a chilly Coaches Stadium on the EIU campus.

The Gamecocks have now won 11 of their last 13 games with the three-game series-opening win over the Panthers.  JSU improved to 14-6 on the season and remained perfect in conference play at 7-0.  EIU, playing its first OVC home game of the year, fell to 3-18 overall and 0-4 against OVC foes.  The two teams will meet again Friday afternoon in the second game of the Easter weekend set.  First pitch is set for 3 p.m.

JSU scored the first run of the game in the third and then would expand the lead with runs in the fifth through the eighth and allow senior right hander Graham Officer to keep EIU off the board.  Officer moved to 2-0 against the OVC after turning in a solid outing.  The Milton, Georgia native went 5.2 innings and allowed just one run.  The Panthers touched Officer for eight hits, but he was able to get out of jams throughout his day.  EIU stranded 10 in the contest, while JSU left eight men on the base paths.

After an unearned run in the third, the Gamecocks pushed the lead to 3-0 in the fifth.  Sophomore Hayden White started a string of three consecutive hits to start the top half of the fifth with a double to left field, followed by a single by Elliot McCummings.  Sophomore Taylor Hawthorne, who went 2-for-4 at the plate with both hits doubles, drove in the first of two runs in the inning.  Junior Peyton Williams had a sacrifice fly RBI for Jax State's second run of the at bat.

JSU manufactured a run in the sixth as senior Paschal Petrongolo reached base on an errant throw by the EIU second baseman.  He moved to second on Tyler Gamble's ground out and later advanced to third on a wild pitch.  White delivered an RBI sacrifice fly to extend the lead to 4-0.

EIU started to cash in on scoring situations off of Officer as Demetre Taylor led off the sixth with a double and scored the Panthers' first run on a sacrifice fly from Josh Turnock.  JSU would get that run back in the top of the seventh after two outs in the inning.  Junior Joe McGuire had a two-out walk that started the scoring situation.  Senior Gavin Golsan turned in a single, followed by an infield single by Clayton Daniel to load the bases.  Petrongolo was walked by EIU starter Michael McCormick for the fifth run of the game.

EIU matched JSU in the seventh after Maton sent a double to the right center gap that was mishandled by McCummings, allowing him to move to third on the play and later scored on a ground ball out.

JSU plated an insurance run in the eighth as JSU could have put the game away with another bases-loaded situation, but came away with just the one run.  White and McCummings singled to begin the inning and Williams had a one-out walk to load the bases.  McGuire lifted a fly ball to left to score White.

Junior Nate Sylvester and Garrett Farmer tried to finish the game off, but a ninth inning rally forced JSU to go with closer Justin Hoyt with one out in the inning.  Jason Scholl collected a one-out double and after a Hoyt strikeout, pinch hitter Matt Dunavant roped a single up the middle to make it a 6-3 game.  Taylor followed with a single to the left side of the infield for the RBI.  Hoyt punched out Frankie Perrone to end it after Perrone led the EIU order with three hits on the day.  Hoyt picked up his fifth save of the year.

The Gamecocks will look to claim their third straight series of the season and sixth out of their last seven, dating back to the final four weekends of 2015 on Friday.  The afternoon affair will be available on the Gamecock Sports Network and video streamed on the OVC Digital Network.