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Box Score 2 KNOXVILLE – The Jacksonville State softball team dropped a pair of one-run games on Saturday, falling 1-0 to Ohio and 3-2 to No. 15 Tennessee.
The Gamecocks (10-6) entered the second day of the Tennessee Invitational with a tough draw in front of them and fell in a pair of pitchers' duels. They dropped the opener of the day to the Bobcats (11-2) before forcing the host Vols (17-2) to come from two runs down and win in their final at bat.
In the early game against Ohio, the Gamecock bats struggled to solve Bobcats starter Savannah Jo Dorsey. She shut out JSU on just two hits and struck out seven in the winning effort to improve to 6-1 on the season.
JSU senior
Taylor West (5-2) was also good for JSU but dropped the 1-0 pitchers' duel. The Anniston native held the Bobcats to a run on four hits in her complete game in the circle, striking out five and walking three.
Ohio got a run in the second inning off of West before she rallied to retire 13 of the last 14 batters she faced. At the plate,
Anna Chisolm and
Leila Chambers had the Gamecocks' two hits, both singles.
In the final game of the day, JSU jumped on the 15th-ranked Vols, scoring a pair in the top of the first. A Tennessee error, followed by a
Taylor Sloan double, set up
Jamie McGuire's squeeze bunt and
Stephanie Lewis' RBI single that gave the Gamecocks an early 2-0 lead.
The Vols cut their deficit in half in the bottom of the first, thanks to an RBI double by Meghan Gregg. They tied it in the second, generating a run after Shelby Robinson's leadoff single.
Whitney Gillespie went the distance against UT, allowing just three runs on seven hits in 6.2 innings of work. The third run came on a two-out single from Chelsea Seggern on a 2-2 pitch that scored Brooke Vines with the walk-off win.
She went toe-to-toe with UT ace Caylan Arnold, who entered the game in the second after starter Matty Moss allowed two runs on two hits. Arnold (7-2) struck out nine in six hitess frames to earn the win.
The Gamecocks will wrap up the weekend on Sunday at 10:30 a.m., when they take on Bradley at Lee Stadium.
