CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – The Jacksonville State softball team kept rolling on Saturday, when it swept a twinbill from Austin Peay to extend the best start to an Ohio Valley Conference season in school history.
 
The Gamecocks (30-14, 19-0 OVC) won the opener 4-1 before a 5-1 win in the second game extended JSU's win streak to 10 and notched its 21st win in the last 22 games. JSU has also won 23-straight OVC games and gained another game on second-place Eastern Kentucky on Saturday.
 
Jax State got two more solid pitching performances from the duo of Whitney Gillespie and Taylor West. Gillespie allowed a run on three hits to win the opener and then retired the last five batters in order in the second game to grab the save. West allowed just one run in over five innings in the second game to grab her 10th win of the year. The duo continued their impressive play in OVC games, where they've combined to go 17-0 with a 1.12 earned run average.
 
Senior Ella Denes continued her success at the plate, going 2-for-4 in each game to raise her team-best average to .405 and her average against OVC pitching to .448. She leads a JSU offense that has five starters with a batting average of at least .400 in OVC games.
 
On Saturday, Gillespie held the Lady Govs (6-33, 2-17 OVC) without a hit until the fifth inning and off the board until the seventh. APSU's run with one out in the seventh was the first the Pelham native had allowed in 26 2/3 innings, a stretch that dated back to April 9.
 
While She was holding the Lady Govs off the base path, the Gamecock offense scraped across three runs in the third and another in the fourth to give its ace plenty of room to work with. Sophomore Jordan Bullock started the scoring with a two-run triple and then scored on a ground out by Jamie McGuire.
 
Freshman Anna Chisolm drove in the other run in the fourth, when her one-out double to left center scored fellow freshman Hayley Sims, who walked to reach with one out. Bullock and Chisolm also had two hits in game one and both leave the day batting over .400 in OVC play.
 
Christiana Gable (1-2) suffered the loss for APSU, allowing three runs on three hits in two innings of work. Kacy Acree doubled for Peay, who scattered its three hits among three players.
 
In game two, the Lady Govs got on the board in the first inning against West. Chandler Groves led off the bottom of the inning with a homer, but the lead wouldn't last long.
 
Sophomore Leila Chambers turned on the second homer of her career in the second to tie the game, and a Denes leadoff blast in the third put JSU up for good. Sophomore Caitlyn Sapp's third-inning RBI double made it a 3-1 game, and that score stood until a pair of seventh-inning insurance runs. Denes doubled in the first before an error allowed the final run to cross.
 
West (10-5) grabbed the win and Gillespie picked up her second save, while APSU's Natalie Ayala (0-10) was tagged with the loss. She allowed four runs on six hits in 6 1/3 innings in the circle.
 
The Gamecocks head to Murray, Ky., where they will play a doubleheader at Murray State on Sunday. The first game starts at 1 p.m. and both games will be streamed live at www.ovcdigitalnetwork.com.