JACKSONVILLE – Jacksonville State bounced back from a tough Friday night loss to Eastern Kentucky to even the series with a 9-3 win over the Colonels on Saturday afternoon at Rudy Abbott Field.
The Gamecocks, who improved to 29-18 on the season and 17-6 in OVC play, force a rubber game on Sunday with the bounce-back win. Sunday's contest will get started at 1 p.m. at Rudy Abbott Field. Admission is free for all JSU students and all fans 18 years old and younger. EKU fell to 22-26 overall and 11-12 in the league. With Southeast Missouri's second loss of the weekend at Tennessee Tech, JSU stands one game back in the league standings.
After EKU won a 19-13 slugfest on Friday and posting 23 hits in the series opener, it was Jax State junior righthander
Joe McGuire that quieted the Colonels in his first career start. The Oxford, Alabama native was touched for the only earned EKU run on the day in the first inning, but that was all EKU's lineup could do against McGuire. McGuire worked 5.1 innings and was touched for just four hits in the lone earned run in the first frame. McGuire worked through jams in the outing and finished with three strikeouts. He moved to 3-0 on the season with the win.
Nate Sylvester finished the final 3.2 innings of the contest to collect his fourth save of the season. The duo of McGuire and Sylvester held EKU to just nine total hits.
The Gamecock offense gave their hurlers a lead to work with as they put three runs on the board in the first inning off of EKU starter Eric Nerl. Senior
Gavin Golsan, who led JSU with a 3-for-4 day, matched EKU with a run off of a passed ball. Seniors
Tyler Gamble and
Paschal Petrongolo delivered sacrifice fly balls to push two more runs across in the inning.
JSU extended the lead in the fourth with one of Golsan's three RBI as the Trussville, Alabama product lifted a fly ball to right field.
Jax State widened the lead in the fifth with an explosive five runs on four hits to mount a 9-1 lead. Junior
Josh Bobo delivered a a pair of RBI on a single to left field, followed by an RBI by
A.J. Reynolds. Golsan drove in his final two RBI with his third hit of the day.
Bobo, Petrongolo and
Hayden White finished with multiple hits in the win, while sophomore
Clayton Daniel extended his hitting streak to 22 consecutive games and pushed his OVC games only hitting streak to 33 straight games dating back to the final 11 league games of last season.
Sunday's contest will be available on the Gamecock Sports Network.
