AUBURN – Jacksonville State kept its season alive on Saturday, eliminating USC Upstate 3-2 and advancing to Sunday's Auburn Regional Championship against the host Tigers.
 
After the longest game in JSU history. A 14-inning win over Oregon State earlier Saturday, pushed the day's schedule into the night, the Gamecocks (43-16) found enough in the tank to down the Spartans (43-15). The win propelled JSU into its third NCAA Regional championship game, joining the 2008 team that fell in Tuscaloosa and the 2009 team that won the Knoxville Regional.
 
Taylor West tossed a gem for the Gamecocks against the Spartans, holding them scoreless until a two-run homer cut the lead to one in the fifth. Senior Casey Akenberger got four outs and allowed just one hit, and then Whitney Gillespie came on to record an improbable two-out save in the seventh.
 
The Gamecocks staked West to a 3-0 lead in the third, when a leadoff single from Anna Chisolm set up an Ella Denes RBI single that broke the scoreless tie. After Jordan Bullock followed with a single to center, Taylor Sloan doubled both home to put the 3-0 lead on the board.
 
West worked around a stout Upstate lineup to strand nine runners before making way for Akenberger. After a one-out error in the seventh put the tying run on base, head coach Jana McGinnis went to Gillespie, who'd just tossed 177 pitches in the 14-inning win over OSU. The Pelham, Ala., native got two ground outs to notch her fourth save and extend the Gamecocks' season at least one more day.
 
Denes went 2-for-4 in the game for JSU, while Bullock, Sloan and Chisolm each singled.
 
Lexi Shubert (10-7) suffered the loss for the Spartans after allowing three runs on five hits in seven innings in the circle. Brittany Case went 2-for-3 at the plate, where Amy Szymanowski drove in two with her fifth-inning homer.
 
The Gamecocks will face the No. 4 national seed Tigers at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday and will have to beat them twice to advance to the Super Regionals.