RICHMOND, Ky. – With its 13th-straight win and 26th-straight in Ohio Valley Conference play, the Jacksonville State softball team clinched the 2016 OVC regular season championship on Saturday.
 
After rain forced the Gamecocks (33-14, 22-0 OVC) to wait over four hours to play just one game against the second-place Colonels (33-13, 15-6 OVC), JSU handed them a 3-0 defeat. It secures the program's fifth OVC regular season title and the ninth regular season or tournament title since joining the league in 2004.
 
To clinch the title, JSU continued to come out on the winning end in league play. The Gamecocks entered the weekend with the sixth-longest overall winning streak in Division I softball, while their 26-game streak in OVC games is the longest regular season conference win streak in the nation.
 
To upend the only team that still had a chance to catch JSU in the standings, it got another gem from sophomore Whitney Gillespie and a pair of big swings from Gillespie and sophomore Leila Chambers.
 
Gillespie (13-1) and EKU ace Hayley Flynn went toe-to-toe on Saturday, posting nothing but zeroes on the scoreboard until the fifth. That was when the first big swing of the night came and it was by Chambers. The native of Molena, Ga., led off the top of the inning by driving Flynn's 2-2 pitch over the wall in center to give JSU a 1-0 lead.
 
Chambers' blast was just the second hit off of Flynn, and Gillespie's was the third. Her one-out seventh-inning homer to left center made it a 2-0 game and gave herself an insurance run. Freshman Anna Chisolm singled through the hole on the left side with the bases loaded later in the seventh to put the third run on the board.
 
Gillespie held EKU scoreless on three hits and struck out nine in her 13th complete game and sixth shutout of the season. She has now allowed one earned run in her last 43 2/3 innings, a stretch that has seen her allow just two extra base hits – both doubles. She has lowered her earned run average to 1.02. The Pelham native entered the weekend ranked seventh nationally in ERA.
 
Flynn (23-7) suffered the loss after limiting the Gamecocks to just five hits, while striking out eight and walking five.
 
The Gamecocks secure the No. 1 seed in the OVC Championship, which will be played at the new Choccolocco Park in Oxford, Ala., from May 11-14. JSU and EKU will attempt to play a doubleheader on Sunday at 12 p.m. CT to conclude the series.