CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – The Jacksonville State baseball team dropped the Ohio Valley Conference opener with an 8-4 setback to Austin Peay on Friday night at a chilly Raymond C. Hand Park.

What was supposed to be a doubleheader on Friday beginning at 12 p.m., was pushed back twice due to standing water in center field of Raymond C. Hand Park after heavy rains moved through the Clarksville area on Thursday night.  The series opener was delayed over five hours and finally got underway right before 6 p.m.  The two teams will revert back to the original weekend schedule with single games on Saturday and Sunday, starting at 1 p.m. respectively.

Just like the previous four games, the Gamecocks (7-5, 0-1 OVC) jumped on the opposition in the first inning, but what looked to be a promising inning to start only amounted to one run.  Nolan Greckel, who posted his team-best ninth walk to open the game and one of Clayton Daniel's two hits off of APSU pitching to start the frame, Greckel scored on Trent Simpson's sacrifice fly.

The first inning was the only blemish on Govs' starter Caleb Powell's outing.  Simpson's fly ball out began a string of 19 Gamecocks retired by Powell until Simpson solved him with a one-out single up the middle.  Powell, who picked up the win and moved to 2-0 on the season, went 7.0 innings and was touched for three hits.  He posted five strikeouts and gave up a free pass to start the game. 

 While Powell was limiting JSU's offense, the Govs (7-6, 1-0 OVC) quickly erased the 1-0 deficit with six runs in the first four innings, including five of the runs with two outs in an inning off Jax State starter Derrick Adams.  Dre Gleason had the big hit in the first inning with a two-out double to left field.  Cayce Bredlau and Garrett Giovannelli turned in RBI in the second to push the lead to 4-1.  APSU added two more runs in the fourth with a pair of two-out RBI by Giovannelli and Alex Robles.  Giovannelli finished 3-for-5 at the plate.  Gleason and Robles also had multiple hits and paced the APSU lineup that tallied 13 hits in the contest.

APSU, one of the top home run hitting club's in the NCAA, belted its 27^th home run of the season with a two-run shot to right field off the bat of Chase Hamilton in the seventh to extend the lead to 8-1.

Jax State cut into the deficit in the eighth after Simpson registered his second hit of the night with a bases loaded single back up the middle, scoring two runs.  The Gamecocks mounted a comeback in the ninth but were limited to just one run.

The two clubs return to action on Saturday with a 1 p.m. start on the APSU campus.  The game will be carried on the Gamecock Sports Network and online at JSUGamecockSports.com.