JACKSON, Tenn. – The Jacksonville State baseball team was a win from claiming its fifth Ohio Valley Conference Baseball Tournament Championship, but Southeast Missouri proved why it won the regular season with a pair of wins on Sunday to win the 2016 OVC Baseball Championship.
The Gamecocks moved into the driver's seat of the championship after knocking off the top-seeded Redhawks, 11-7 on Saturday to push SEMO to the elimination bracket and have to beat JSU twice to sweep the regular season crown and the tournament title. SEMO forced the winner-take-all contest with a 10-7 decision on Sunday before winning the league's automatic bid to the 2016 NCAA Baseball Championship, 14-8.
JSU wraps a solid season in which it finished with 30 or more wins for the 32
nd time in the programs history and in 12 of the last 12 season under veteran head coach
Jim Case with a 34-24 overall mark. Jax State finished second in the OVC with a 20-10 mark against conference foes and earned the No. 2 seed in the tournament in Jackson, Tennessee. JSU made its 13
th straight appearance in the OVC Baseball Championship and has now reached the championship round in nine of those 13 showings. SEMO improved to 39-19 overall and will represent the OVC in an NCAA Baseball Regional next weekend.
SEMO maintained the momentum gained from forcing the winner-take-all contest with four runs in the first off of sophomore lefthander
Jack Pierce, but JSU answered with three runs in the top of the second after senior
Gavin Golsan cleared the bases with his second triple of the tournament and the second of his career in the second.
After junior
Joe McGuire came in to get JSU out of a jam in the second, the Gamecocks' sticks remained hot against SEMO pitching. Senior
Tyler Gamble, who finished the four games in the tournament with seven total walks in four games, led off the frame with a free pass. Senior
Elliot McCummings and sophomore
Taylor Hawthorne collected back-to-back doubles to drive in the tying and go-ahead runs. SEMO went to the bullpen once again, but junior
Josh Bobo reached on a fielding miscue to greet Alex Siddle. Junior
Peyton Williams lifted a deep fly ball to center to plate the final run of the frame.
McGuire had a shutdown third inning after being handed a 7-4 lead, but SEMO cut the deficit to 7-5 in the fourth with an unearned run and equalized in the fifth with a two-run home run by Hunter Leeper.
The Gamecocks regained the lead in the sixth as sophomore
Clayton Daniel grounded a ball to the right side to push Golsan across the plate. That would be the final run for the Gamecocks as SEMO bounced back with two runs in the sixth and a 10-8 lead, which it would not relinquish after 2016 OVC Pitcher of the Year, Joey Lucchesi tossed the final three frames and allowed just one hit. He was named the 2016 OVC Baseball Championship Most Valuable Player after earning a complete game shutout of Morehead State and a save in the title game.
JSU had three players named to the 2016 OVC Baseball Championship All-Tournament Team. Gamble, Daniel and Hawthorne. Gamble, from Alabaster, Alabama, closed out his career as a two-time selection to the All-Tournament Team as he helped JSU to the 2014 crown. The first baseman was also named Second Team All-OVC in his final season as a Gamecock. Gamble finished the tournament 4-for-13 at the plate, including a pair of home runs. He drove in seven runs in the four games in the tournament.
Daniel continued his stellar sophomore campaign during the tournament as the Guntersville, Alabama second baseman collected seven hits, including a pair of doubles. He finished the season as the clubs top hitter at .372 and hit .394 against OVC competition this season.
Hawthorne, who finished Sunday 5-for-8 at the dish and posted a .418 batting average in the four games in Jackson.
