JACKSONVILLE – Senior Tyler Gamble's double to right center propelled Jacksonville State to a 5-4 walk- off win over Western Kentucky in the opening game of a weekend series at Rudy Abbott Field on Friday afternoon.

The win pushed Jax State's overall mark to 4-4, while the loss by the Hilltoppers snapped a six-game winning streak and dropped their season's mark to 7-2. JSU and WKU will resume the series on Saturday with a 1 p.m. contest.

JSU's walk off was its second of the season after the first one came on the opening weekend of the seasons against Valparaiso.  That walk off was created by a fielding miscue by the Crusaders, but on Friday it was JSU's offense that manufactured the winning run.  With one down in the inning, the Gamecocks had back-to-back singles by Clayton Daniel and Paschal Petrongolo to set up Gamble's game-ending at bat.  The Alabaster, Alabama belted a double to right center to score Daniel and give JSU the series-opening win.  Gamble's hit was the Gamecocks 12^th off of WKU's pitching staff, a staff that entered the contest with an earned run average just over three.  The double was the third extra base hit of the contest for JSU.

For the third time this season, the Gamecocks had to come from behind for a win.  JSU erased a pair of Hilltopper advantages throughout the game and sent the game to the ninth all tied at nine after an RBI sacrifice fly to center by Taylor Hawthorne.

Redshirt sophomore Justin Hoyt was inserted on the mound for the ninth and worked out of a bases loaded jam to give JSU a chance to win it in the last at bat.  With JSU's run in the ninth, Hoyt picked up his first win of the season and second of his career.  WKU's Kevin Elder was tagged with the loss.

JSU took an early lead in the first with a solo home run off the bat of Petrongolo.  The round tripper was his third of the season and the third game in the last four with a home run.  He finished the contest 2-for-5 and an RBI.

Staked to a 1-0 lead, Gamecock starter Graham Officer turned in another quality start.  The Milton, Georgia righty went a career high six innings and scattered seven Hilltopper hits.  Officer ran into trouble in the fifth after WKU took a 2-1 lead on a pair of two-out triples by Steven Kraft and Thomas Peter.

Jax State answered in the bottom half of the fifth with a two-run RBI single by Daniel.  Daniel started a new hitting streak after snapping his 15-game hitting streak last Wednesday against Alabama State, but pushed his consecutive games on-base streak to 30 games dating back to last season.  The Guntersville, Alabama infielder joined Petrongolo and Hawthorne with two hits each,

Trailing 3-2 heading to the seventh, WKU posted a pair of hits off of JSU reliever Grant Chandler with the big hit coming from WKU's Peter.  Peter added to his extra base total with an RBI double.  He scored the go-ahead run off of Danny Hudzina's run-scoring single up the middle.

The first three batters in WKU's order combined for six of its nine hits off of Gamecock pitching.

Saturday's 1 p.m. contest will be available on the Gamecock Sports Network.  Admission to all JSU baseball games is free to all JSU students and fans 18 and under.