Box Score JACKSONVILLE – Sophomore Clayton Daniel delivered a clutch triple to give Jacksonville State a lead and senior righthander Graham Officer shut down Southeast Missouri as JSU moved ahead of SEMO in the standings after Friday night's 6-2 win at Rudy Abbott Field.
The series-opening win pushed Jax State's OVC mark to 14-2, while the Redhawks dropped to 16-3 in OVC play. The two clubs will face off against each other in game two of the weekend set on Saturday at 1 p.m. Admission is free to all JSU students and all fans 18 years old and under.
Daniel, a sophomore from Guntersville, Alabama and the OVC's top hitter against league teams, proved why he is one of the top performers in the conference. After the Gamecocks erased a 1-0 SEMO lead in the fourth, Daniel laced a triple down the right field line off of SEMO's Joey Lucchesi, driving in a pair of runs. Junior Peyton Williams and senior Gavin Golsan touched Lucchesi for back-to-back singles prior to Daniel's key hit. Daniel scored the third run of the inning on Taylor Hawthorne's sacrifice fly to left field.
Lucchesi, one of the top pitchers in the OVC, had his shortest stint of the season and walked five in the outing. He was saddled with his third loss of the year.
After being handed a 4-1 lead, Officer was stellar in his 6.2 innings of work and limited SEMO's scoring chances. The Milton, Georgia-native matched his career-high in strikeouts with six and allowed just one earned run against an offense that entered the weekend batting .332 in league games. The only earned run allowed by Officer was a leadoff home run by Trevor Ezell to start the Friday night contest. He scattered eight hits and walked just one. He moved to 7-1 on the season and 5-0 on OVC Friday night's.
The Jax State bullpen was once again solid as Grant Chandler, Nate Sylvester and Justin Hoyt finished the game. All three relievers had a strikeout as the Gamecock arms struck out nine Redhawks, including seven strike outs looking. Hoyt got the final out of the game and collected his league-best 10th save after the tying run was at the plate.
SEMO sliced the lead to 4-2 with an unearned run off of Officer in the seventh, but JSU expanded the lead with two runs in the seventh. A Redhawk fielding miscue opened the door for JSU's runs as senior Tyler Gamble registered a double just inside the third base bag, scoring both runs on the play.
Senior Elliot McCummings was the only Gamecock to have multiple hits in the contest and both came off of SEMO ace Lucchesi. McCummings recorded JSU's first hit of the night in the second and drive in JSU's first run with a bloop single to centerfield in the fourth.
JSU will send sophomore lefty Jack Pierce on Saturday with a chance to win the series, while SEMO will counter with righthander Clay Chandler. Saturday's game will be available on the Gamecock Sports Network and it will be streamed on the OVC Digital Network.
