OXFORD – After being forced to the winner-take-all game on Saturday, the Jacksonville State softball team defeated SIU-Edwardsville 6-1 to win its fifth OVC Tournament title.
The top-seeded Gamecocks (41-15) dropped a 2-1 pitchers duel to the Cougars (28-26) to start the Championship round of the tournament at Choccolocco Park, but they flexed their muscles in the if-necessary game to advance to the NCAA Regionals for the seventh time in school history.
The Gamecocks will learn their postseason destination on Sunday, when the NCAA Softball Championship Selection Show is held at 9 p.m. CT. The show will air on ESPNU, and fans wishing to watch with the Gamecocks can join them on the fifth floor of JSU Stadium Towers for a watch party. Admission is free.
JSU got great pitching performances from
Whitney Gillespie and
Taylor West, both of which were named to the OVC All-Tournament Team with
Leila Chambers and
Jordan Bullock. Gillespie also homered in the final game and had a walk-off triple in the second round to help her earn Most Valuable Player honors.
In the deciding game, JSU got on the board first and did so quickly.
Jordan Bullock singled and scored on a two-out single through the left side by
Jamie McGuire to give the Gamecocks a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning.
Gillespie put another run on the board for starter West, belting a leadoff homer into the parking lot beyond the left field wall to start the fourth inning. An
Emily Woodruff RBI single plated Chambers later in the inning to make it a 3-0 game.
West cruised through the first four innings and took a no-hitter into the fifth, when a slow roller off the bat of Allison Smiley was just out of the reach of Bullock at second and broke West's bid for a no-no.
She earned the win and improved to 15-5, allowing a run on three hits in six innings. Gillespie tossed the final frame and gave up one hit while striking out two batter. West fanned six in her time in the circle.
Baylee Douglass, who won a toe-to-toe battle with Gillespie in the first game, was tagged with the game two loss. She gave up three runs on six hits in three innings, and Ashley Koziol tossed the final four frames and surrendered three runs on five hits in relief.
Bullock and Chambers were 2-for-4 for JSU in the win and both capped impressive performances in the tournament. Chambers belted her second homer of the week and drove in three runs in the title game alone.
In the first game, the Gamecocks gave SIUE its first window and the Cougars took advantage of it. A leadoff walk to Rachel Keller and an Allison Smiley single set up back-to-back squeeze bunts that put the Cougars in front 2-0.
The Gamecocks finally got on the board in the fourth, thanks to a leadoff walk to
Ella Denes. She moved to second when Douglass hit
Anna Chisolm and scored on a
Stephanie Lewis grounder that rolled up the arm of second baseman Talisa Morton and into right field.
The Gamecocks put runners on base in of the final three innings but couldn't get a run across before falling into the winner-take-all game.
Douglass grabbed the win after holding JSU to an unearned run on three hits in seven innings. She walked one and hit one, while Gillespie suffered her first loss to an OVC foe this season and fell to 16-2 on the year. She allowed two runs on two hits in seven frames that saw her strike out three.
