HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Anna Chisolm's big day at the plate and a pair of pitching gems by Whitney Gillespie and Faith Sims keyed the Jacksonville State softball team in a pair of wins in the Southern Miss Black & Gold Classic on Saturday.
 
The Gamecocks (8-1) handed host Southern Miss a 2-0 defeat behind Gillespie's complete game shutout and then rode another complete game by Sims to upend Mississippi Valley State 10-1 in the finale. The two wins capped a perfect 4-0 weekend and extended the best start to a season since the 2006 team opened with an 8-1 record.
 
Chisolm, a sophomore from St. Louis, went 5-for-8 on the day with two homers, two doubles and six RBI. Over the weekend, she hit .615 (8-for-13) with six runs scored and two stolen bases. She paced an offense that hit .345 and outscored its opponents 28-8.
 
In the opener against the host Golden Eagles, Gillespie kept their batters handcuffed. The JSU ace held USM scoreless on just four hits and struck out two to improve to 3-1 on the season.
 
She got all the offense she needed in the fifth, when a two-out rally broke a scoreless tie. Emily Woodruff got it started with a double to right and then scored the game's first run on a triple by Taylor Sloan that found the gap in right center.
 
Gillespie got an insurance run in the top of the seventh, thanks to Chisolm's solo homer that also put a two-out run on the board. Gillespie sat the Golden Eagles down in order in the seventh to finish her third complete game in four starts in 2017.
 
JSU managed six hits against Southern Miss, two apiece from Chisolm and Woodruff. Kim Crowson took the tough-luck loss for USM after allowing a run on five hits in five innings of work. Samantha Robles tossed the other two innings, allowing a run on one hit – Chisolm's homer.
 
Chisolm picked up in the second game where she left off in the first, providing the bulk of the pop in a 10-1 rout of Mississippi Valley State. She drove in half of JSU's runs in a 3-for-4 game that saw her double twice and homer for the second time during the day.
 
After The Delta Devils took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first, a throwing error allowed JSU to tie the game in the top of the second. Chisolm's first RBI of the game followed on a bases loaded walk that gave JSU a 2-1 lead.
 
She drove in the next two runs, too, thanks to a two-run double to left in the fourth, and then put the final two runs up with a two-run blast in the seventh.
 
She had three of JSU's 11 hits, while Leila Chambers and Cadi Oliver each had two. Chambers and Oliver had back-to-back doubles in JSU's five-run seventh, two of the team's six doubles in the game.
 
Sophomore Faith Sims settled in in the circle to toss a gem for JSU, holding the Delta Devils to a run on just three hits in the complete game. She struck out 10 batters to grab her first win of the season.
 
Rebekah Clin suffered the loss, recording all but one out in the game but allowing nine runs on 10 hits. Shyanne Down allowed the other run before getting the final out in the seventh.
 
JSU returns to action on Wednesday, when the Gamecocks travel to Atlanta to face Georgia Tech in a midweek game that will begin at 3 p.m. CT.