Photo Gallery

JACKSON, Tenn. – Jacksonville State has advanced to the championship contest of the Ohio Valley Conference Baseball Championship for the ninth time in the last 13 years with an 11-7 win over top-seeded Southeast Missouri on Saturday night at The Ballpark at Jackson.

The Gamecocks will be seeking their fifth OVC Baseball Tournament Championship on Sunday at 12 p.m. against the winner of the Austin Peay and SEMO contest that followed JSU's come-from-behind win.  The Govs or Redhawks will have to knock off the Gamecocks twice to win the 2016 crown.  APSU eliminated Belmont, 7-4, in a 13-inning affair that started the day in Jackson, Tenn.  JSU won the tournament in 2004, 2006, 2010 and 2014.

Sophomore Taylor Hawthorne had the game-changing hit with a three-run blast that cleared the 16-foot wall in right center to give Jax State an 8-7 lead.  The hit changed the momentum in the contest after SEMO erased an early 5-1 deficit in the fifth with a pair of unearned runs to take a 7-5 lead.  JSU touched Redhawk starter Robert Beltran for five runs in the first two innings and chased him in the second after two runs were added to a three-run JSU lead.  SEMO inserted Clay Chandler, who quieted the JSU bats for the next four innings before the start of the seventh inning.

Senior Tyler Gamble kick-started the frame with a one-out single through the left side, followed by an Elliot McCummings walk.  Hawthorne drilled the first pitch he saw in the at bat off of Chandler over the wall to ignite the offense.  Beltran and Chandler limited JSU to just four hits prior to the start of the inning, but JSU was able to take advantage of six walks between the two SEMO hurlers.  SEMO pitching issued nine free passes to JSU, which is the most against an OVC opponent and the second-most this season.  SEMO walked 11 on March 16 against in-state foe Missouri.

While Chandler was keeping JSU's offense off the scoreboard, it was the work by Gamecock freshman Garrett Farmer on the mound in relief.  After tossing one pitch in JSU's 12-10 win over Austin Peay to close out the win and get a save, the Huntsville, Alabama right hander came in relief of senior Graham Officer fifth inning. 
Inserted into the game with the bases full of Redhawks, Farmer was able to limit the damage to just two runs in the inning.  Farmer's outing would be a career-long for him as he was staked to the 8-7 lead after the seventh.  He nearly finished the contest for JSU, but after SEMO threatened in its final plate appearance, Jax State went with redshirt-sophomore Justin Hoyt to finish it.  SEMO loaded the bases with one down in the inning, but Hoyt induced a ground ball double play ball that ended the game.

JSU added three more runs in the eighth inning to help preserve the win as the Gamecocks used the long ball once again as Gamble collected his second home run of the tournament with a two-run blast in left center.  Gamble's round tripper followed sophomore Clayton Daniel's second RBI of the contest and his third hit of the game with a single to left field.  With his three hits off of SEMO pitching, the Guntersville, Alabama second baseman pushed his batting average against OVC competition to .404.  Daniel has at least one hit in 55 of the 61 OVC games he has played in.

McCummings had his second consecutive two-hit contest with an RBI double in the top of the first.  He was plated on Josh Bobo's RBI single.  

Sunday's OVC Championship will be available on the Gamecock Sports Network and streamed online on the OVC Digital Network.