CARBONDALE, Ill. – Senior designated hitter Paschal Petrongolo was glad the calendar switched to April after a rough month of March as he delivered a pair of home runs and three RBI to lead Jacksonville State to a 9-5 win over Southern Illinois on Friday afternoon at Itchy Jones Stadium.

Petrongolo finished the 3-for-5 in the non-conference series opener against the Salukis and scored three of the nine runs.  He pushed JSU's (17-8) lead to 5-2 with a two-run blast to right center in the fifth and collected his second home run of the game off of SIU starter Joey Marciano in his next plate appearance in JSU's four-run eighth inning.  The Blackwood, New Jersey native struggled with a .194 average at the plate in JSU's 18 games in the month of March.  He was a freshman on the 2013 squad that faced SIU and now has eight hits in four meetings against SIU (15-10-1) in his career.  His home run in the eighth started the four spot in the eighth as senior Tyler Gamble recorded his fifth home run of the season with a blast over the right field wall.  It's the second time in the last three games that JSU has had a player hit two home runs in a contest and the second time in the last week that JSU has posted back-to-back dingers.  Josh Bobo had a pair of home runs last Tuesday against Samford, while Gamble and Hayden White went back-to-back last weekend at Eastern Illinois.

JSU handed senior right hander Graham Officer a 1-0 lead to work with and the Milton, Georgia native turned in a methodical outing.  Officer worked out of jams in his six innings of work, but allowed just seven hits in the outing and moved to 4-1 on the season.  Officer was touched for two runs in the third as SIU erased the lead with a three-hit frame.

The Gamecocks regained the lead with a pair of runs in the fourth and fifth.  Senior Elliot McCummings highlighted the fourth inning with a double that plated a pair of RBI to give JSU a 3-2 lead.  McCummings finished the day with a pair of doubles and driving in three runs.  Senior Gavin Golsan also had a two-hit day with a pair of infield singles and scored two runs.
JSU's only error opened the door for SIU to get a run in the sixth to make it 5-3.  Jared Schmidt had an RBI single, scoring Drew Curtis, who reached on the two-out fielding error.  

Sophomore Grant Chandler came in relief of Officer in the seventh and worked a clean seventh and eight before getting in trouble in SIU's final plate appearance.  Chandler's allowed both of SIU's runs in the ninth to make things interesting before Justin Hoyt was called upon to close the contest.  With the bases loaded and the tying run at the plate, Hoyt was able to register his Ohio Valley Conference-leading seventh save of the year.

JSU will be looking to clinch its sixth series of the season and ninth in the last 11 series on Saturday.  The Gamecocks and Salukis will square off at 2 p.m.  The game will be available on the Gamecock Sports Network.