Box Score CARBONDALE, Ill. – for the first time in the last five weekends, Jacksonville State dropped a weekend series with a tough 3-2 loss to Southern Illinois in the rubber game of the non-conference series at Itchy Jones Stadium.
The series loss is the first since JSU dropped a road series in late February at Kennesaw State. The Gamecocks drop to 18-9 on the season, while the Salukis moved to 17-10-1 overall. After a midweek set with the Blazers of UAB coming, JSU returns to Ohio Valley Conference play next weekend, hosting Murray State at Rudy Abbott Field. JSU will host UAB on Tuesday at 6 p.m. and will take on the Blazers on Wednesday at Regions Field in downtown Birmingham at 6:30 p.m.
The story of the contest was JSU's inability to get a clutch hit as it grounded into three double plays that ended scoring threats in two of the final three innings. Trailing in the ninth, the Gamecocks had the tying run on third with one down, but freshman Nic Gaddis grounded a ball to second base to end the contest. Facing SIU's Michael Baird, who entered the game with an earned run average under two runs, touched him for 12 hits in the setback, which is the most any opposing team has touched Baird all season.
Jax State limited the Salukis to just five hits, but one of those five hits was a two-run triple by Jake Hand in the third. SIU pushed the eventual game-winning run with an RBI single by Logan Blackfan. The third inning was the only inning SIU gave JSU freshman starter
Garrett Farmer any trouble. The Huntsville, Alabama native made his first weekend start of the season and turned in a quality start. Farmer gave JSU five solid innings and was touched for all five SIU hits. He struck out five Salukis and allowed one walk on the day.
Nate Sylvester and
Michael McCreless finished the final three innings and did not give up a hit. Sylvester added three strikeouts on the day in his 2.2 innings of work.
After getting hits off of Baird throughout the game, the Gamecocks were finally able to push runs across the plate in the sixth. Sophomore
Clayton Daniel delivered an RBI double to put the first run on the board and he scored on
Tyler Gamble's single to left field. Gamble led JSU at the plate with a 3-for-4 day. Daniel and
A.J. Reynolds were the other two Gamecocks with multiple hits in the game.
Admission is free to All JSU student and fans ages 18 and under to all JSU baseball games at Rudy Abbott Field.
