OXFORD – Jacksonville State scored a pair of late-inning runs to break up a 1-1 deadlock to down SIU Edwardsville, 3-1, to win the final Ohio Valley Conference weekend series on Friday afternoon at Choccolocco Park.

With the series win, the Gamecocks won six league series this season, including the last four weekends of the regular season.  JSU, who has won eight of its last 11 OVC contests, moved to 16-13 in the league and 29-24 overall.  The Gamecocks will remain in fourth place after Friday's action around the league.  A win on Saturday over SIUE will match Belmont's 17-13 league record, but the Bruins would get the No. 3 seed in the OVC Baseball Tournament next week in Oxford at Choccolocco Park.  The loss by SIUE hindered its chances of earning one of the remaining four spots in the eight-team field.  The Cougars dropped to 23-28 overall and 11-18 in OVC play.

Jax State and SIUE will wrap up the series and the regular season on Saturday at 1 p.m.  JSU will honor its six seniors prior to the start of the series finale.  All JSU students and all fans 18 years old and younger get in free to the park.

Junior Hayden White's RBI sacrifice fly to centerfield broke up the 1-1 contest in the seventh.  Senior Joe McGuire started the frame with a single, followed by a bunt single by senior A.J. Reynolds that sent McGuire to third on a heads-up base running play.  Sophomore Nic Gaddis delivered in the eighth with an RBI double that cushioned the JSU lead to 3-1.

Junior Taylor Hawthorne, who had the only multi-hit game for the Gamecocks, posted the first run of the day in the first with a double to left center.  Hawthorne's double followed Clayton Daniel, who reached base with a two-bagger just inside the third base bag.  Hawthorne and Daniel extended their hitting streak against OVC competition with hits in the contest.  Hawthorne has now put together 12 straight conference games with a hit and has reached base in the last 12 OVC outings.  Daniel continues to be impressive against OVC foes as he extended his on base streak to 27 consecutive games and now has his second 13-game hitting streak versus OVC arms.

Jax State starter Colton Pate worked out of jams in his three innings of work after having some command issues in the outing.  Pate worked out of a bases-loaded situation with the first of three double plays turned by the Gamecocks on Friday.  The Lincoln, Alabama native left another Cougar stranded in scoring position in the third inning.  He would finish the day with four strikeouts and allowed four walks.

Senior Nate Sylvester turned in a career performance in quieting the Cougars offensively.  Sylvester tossed a career high four innings and matched his career high in strikeouts with four.  SIUE would record its lone run of the day in the fifth.  The run was unearned after the Cougar who scored, reached on a JSU fielding miscue.  Sylvester scattered five SIUE hits in the outing and walked just one Cougar.  He picked up his second win of the season out of the bullpen.

Junior Trent Simpson tallied a pair of strikeouts in his inning of work to hold the contest for Jax State closer Justin Hoyt.  Hoyt retired SIUE in order for his ninth save of the season and fifth in OVC play.
SIUE starter Brock Fulkerson was saddled with the loss after allowing two of the three runs on seven hits.  SIUE's Keaton Wright and Eric Giltz had two hits each in the setback.

Saturday's game will be an internet-only broadcast on JSUGamecockSports.com.