Box Score JACKSONVILLE – Southeast Missouri evened the key Ohio Valley Conference weekend series with a 13-6 win on Saturday afternoon at Rudy Abbott Field and forced a rubber game in the series on Sunday.

In the battle for the top spot in the OVC standings, JSU entered the day in first place after Friday's 6-2 win, but with Saturday's win, SEMO jumped to the top spot.  The Gamecocks dropped to 16-12 overall and 14-3 in OVC play, while the Redhawks improved to 28-11 on the season and 17-3 in the league.  Sunday's rubber game is set for 1 p.m.  Admission is free to all JSU students and fans 18 yeard old and younger.

After Jax State held the league's best hitting team to a pair of runs on 10 hits, SEMO's high-powered offense came to life on Saturday as it would score eight runs over the first three innings, highlighted by a six-run third inning.  JSU pitching surrendered a season-high 20 hits in the setback, including eight extra base hits.

SEMO, who scored run in the first for the second straight game, broke open a 2-1 contest in the third.  In the Redhawks' third inning, they laced four of their seven doubles in the game off of JSU starter Jack Pierce to power the six-run frame.  SEMO's Garrett Gandolfo started the first of four doubles in the inning.  Chris Caffery had an RBI double, followed by Chris Osborne's RBI extra base hit.  Andy Lack, who had a pair of doubles in the win, drove in this second and third RBI with a double down the right field line.  Lack gave SEMO a 2-1 advantage in his first plate appearance, driving in a run with a double.

JSU started to claw its way back into the contest with a run in the fourth as senior Elliot McCummings scored on a Clay Chandler wild pitch.  McCummings, who had a 3-for-5 day at the dish, started the fourth with a leadoff single.

Trailing 8-2, the Gamecocks mounted a rally in the fifth inning and chased Chandler after 4.1 innings.  Junior A.J. Reynolds kick-started the inning with a leadoff double to center, followed by a Gavin Golsan base hit.  Sophomore Clayton Daniel drew a walk to load the bases.  Sophomore Taylor Hawthorne delivered JSU's second grand slam of the season with a towering shot just over the right field fence to make things interesting at 8-6.  JSU had the tying runs in scoring position, but SEMO reliever Adam Pennigton induced an inning-ending ground ball.

Hawthorne joined McCummings with three hits in the affair and tallied five RBI.  He drove in JSU's first run of the day in the first on a single and had a single in the third.  Golsan had a two hit day along with Reynolds.

Pennington would shut down the JSU offense the rest of the way as he scattered four hits in the final 4.2 innings.  He picked up the win and moved to 3-0 on the season.  He did not walk a Gamecock and struck out a pair.  JSU touched Chandler for six runs off nine hits and drew two walks.

SEMO stretched the deficit to 9-6 with an unearned run in the sixth as Hunter Leeper recorded an RBI single, scoring Branden Boggetto, who led off the inning with a JSU fielding miscue.  The Redhawks put the game out of reach with four combined runs in the sixth and seventh, including a three-run seventh that happened with two outs in the inning.

Sunday's game will be available on the Gamecock Sports Network.