JACKSONVILLE – Leila Chambers drove in seven runs over two games on Saturday, helping the Jacksonville State softball team to a doubleheader sweep of Murray State at University Field and into first place in the Ohio Valley Conference standings.
 
The junior from Zebulon, Ga., went 2-for-3 and hit a three-run homer in each game on Saturday, putting together a 4-for-6 day that saw her score three times and boast a 1.667 slugging percentage.


 
Along with Chamber's two homers, senior Cadi Oliver got her first round tripper of the season, a three-run shot in the second game that helped the Gamecocks (25-9, 5-1 OVC) overcome an early 4-1 deficit to the Racers (25-12, 2-3 OVC). With the sweep JSU has now won six in a row and 12 of its last 14 to move into a tie for first in the league standings with Eastern Illinois.
 
While the Gamecocks were racking up 18 hits against an MSU team that entered the day with one of the top five earned run averages in the OVC, Whitney Gillespie was continuing her impressive work in the circle.
 
The junior from Pelham earned the complete-game win in the opener before entering the second game to record a six-out save, her first of the year and ninth of her career,
 
The Racers struck early in the first game with an unearned run to grab a 1-0 lead in top of the first. With runners on second and third, Gillespie got a called third strike on a change up, but a passed ball allowed the batter to reach and the runner at third to score. The unearned run snapped a streak of 33.1 consecutive scoreless innings in OVC play, dating back to an unearned run by the Racers in April of last season.
 
The Gamecock offense picked her up in the second, when Chambers deposited her first homer of the season over the left field wall. The junior took Mason Robinson's 1-2 pitch the other way for a three-run blast that gave JSU a 3-1 lead.
 
JSU got two more in the third on RBI grounders from Taylor Sloan and Hayley Sims that made it a 5-1 game and then stretched it to 7-1 in the fifth. The first came on a sac from Sims that resulted in a throwing error from Robinson that allowed Stephanie Lewis to score. Chambers drove in her fourth run of the game later in the frame on a line drive to right that plated Sloan easily from third.
 
A pinch-hit two-run homer from Madison Culver cut JSU's lead to 7-3 in the sixth and ended another impressive streak of Gillespie's. The two earned runs were the first against her in OVC play since Austin Peay got one on April 23, 2016, snapping a streak of 46.2 innings without an earned run in OVC play for the junior ace.
 
Gillespie (12-4) earned the win after limiting the Racers to three runs, two earned, on seven hits in seven innings in the circle. She struck out six and tossed 118 pitches in the complete game.
 
Robinson (17-6) took the loss in the circle, allowing seven runs, four earned, on 10 hits in six innings of work. She recorded three strikeouts and didn't issue a walk in the losing effort.
 
Chambers was 2-for-3 with four RBI, one of three Gamecocks with two hits. Sloan and Cadi Oliver also recorded two hits in the game.
 
In the second game, the two offenses went back-and-forth from the start. After both teams scored a run in the first, Murray State seemed to take control with a three-run top of the second.
 
The Gamecocks answered, posting four in the home half of the inning to turn a 4-1 deficit into a one-run lead. Anna Chisolm drove in the first on a double to left center, and then Oliver's first home run of the season put the Gamecocks up for the first time in the game, 5-4. She drove Haven Campbell's 1-1 pitch over foul pole in left to drive in three.
 
JSU plated four more runs in the third, an inning that started with Chambers' second three-run homer of the day. The junior pulled Amber Van Duyse's 1-2 pitch down the right field line and off of the foul pole to give JSU an 8-4 advantage. The Gamecocks got one more on a Jimmerson grounder that scored Emily Woodruff, who reached on a fielding error from Robinson in the circle, from third.
 
A two-run homer by Jessica Twaddle in the sixth cut JSU's lead to 9-6 and forced the Gamecocks to go back to Gillespie, who came in and earned her first save of the season.
 
Gillespie tossed two shutout innings out of the bullpen to earn the save, while Kirsten Titus (1-0) grabbed the win in relief. Titus allowed just two hits in 2.2 scoreless frames in relief of starter Taylor West.
 
MSU starter Haven Campbell (8-6) suffered the defeat after surrendering five runs on four hits and a pair of walks in 1.1 innings.
 
Chambers led the Gamecocks at the plate with her 2-for-3, three-RBI game, while Chisolm extended her team-high hitting streak to nine games with a 2-for-3 effort in game two.
 
The Gamecocks will return to action on Tuesday, when they travel to Birmingham to face UAB at 6 p.m.