MURRAY, Ky. – For the third consecutive Sunday, senior Joe McGuire turned in stellar performance on the mound as he led Jacksonville State to a 4-3 series-clinching win over Murray State on Sunday at Reagan Field on the MSU campus.

With Sunday's win, the Gamecocks have won the last three weekend series, dating back to the weekend set versus Eastern Illinois.  Last weekend, Jax State claimed a non-conference series at Southern Illinois in similar fashion as it did against the Racers.  JSU won the opening contest, 7-5 and dropped the Saturday game, 6-4.  JSU improved to 14-11 overall and 4-5 in Ohio Valley Conference play.  After being on the road for the last two weekends and no midweek activity, JSU begins a busy week on Tuesday at home against the Blazers of UAB, before making a trip to Birmingham on Wednesday at UAB.  JSU will host OVC front-runner Tennessee Tech next weekend in an OVC weekend series.

McGuire, the reigning OVC Pitcher of the Week, turned in another weekly conference award effort on Sunday.  The Oxford, Alabama right hander established a new career high in innings pitched after going seven innings last week.  He reached in to the eighth inning against MSU and recorded the first out of the eighth before walking the next two batters.  McGuire silenced the Racers' bats with three hits on the day and recording four strikeouts.  After being touched for an unearned run in the first, and working around trouble in the third and fourth innings, he would retire 11 of the next 17 batters, including 11 consecutive Racers.  His one-out walk allowed the first base runner since the MSU fourth inning.

JSU erased the one-run deficit in the third inning on junior Taylor Hawthorne's RBI single that scored Clayton Daniel.  That frame would begin three consecutive run-scoring innings for the Gamecocks.  JSU took the lead on freshman Payton Young's first career home run to start the fourth inning.  JSU extended the lead in the fifth with an RBI single by Clayton Daniel, scoring Nic Gaddis, who reached with a lead off base hit.

The Gamecocks used the long ball for the final run as freshman Andrew Naismith delivered a one-out solo home run over the left field fence.  Naismith led the offense with three hits, while Young added a pair of hits.

JSU's bullpen withstood an eighth-inning charge by the Racers as they would add two runs to cut the deficit to 4-3.  JSU started with freshman Cody Dodd in relief, followed by redshirt freshman Tyler Wilburn and Michael McCreless.  McCreless preserved the win with a strikeout to end the MSU threat with the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position.  He retired the Racers in order to collect his first save of the season and second of his career.  It was his first save since last season against Belmont.

On the weekend, the JSU pitching staff limited a Racers' line up that was one of the best in the league entering the weekend at .330.  After three games, JSU's arms held MSU to a .167 average at the plate and surrendered 16 hits in three games and 14 total runs and just 10 earned runs.

The Gamecocks and Blazers will get underway at 6 p.m. at Oxford's Choccolocco Park, while Wednesday's game at Young Memorial Field is set for 6:30 p.m.  Both games will be on the Gamecock Sports Network.