OXFORD, Ala. – Jacksonville State completed a season-opening weekend sweep of Southern Illinois after blanking the Salukis 6-0 on Sunday afternoon at Choccolocco Park in Oxford, Ala.
JSU recorded its first sweep of a season-opening series since taking all three games from Youngstown State to start the 2015 campaign. The Gamecocks have posted sweeps in their last two regular season weekends, dating back to last season's Ohio Valley Conference sweep of SIU Edwardsville. JSU opened the season with a 7-4 win over SIU and claimed the series on Saturday with a come-from-behind 10-9 win.
The Gamecocks combined a string pitching performance by the staff and timely hitting throughout the contest. JSU's four pitchers combined to limit an SIU club that collected 20 hits in thr first two days to five hits on Sunday. Senior Colton Pate (1-0) picked up the win after tossing the first five innings and allowed just one hit in the outing – which was a leadoff double by Connor Kopach. Pate, from Lincoln, Alabama tallied five strikeouts in his 2018 debut. SIU did not get its next hit until a one-out single by Nikola Vasic in the sixth off of sophomore reliever Corley Woods. Sophomore Dylan Hathcock was impressive in his first action of the season in the seventh and eighth with three strikeouts. Freshman Colin Casey, a local product from Jacksonville, Alabama, finished off the contest in the ninth.
JSU's offense staked the pitching staff to a lead that it would not relinquish in the second with the first of two home runs on the day. Senior Trent Simpson sent the first pitch he saw from SIU starter Mason Hiser (0-1) over the left field wall in the second inning. Simpson finished the weekend 5-for-13 (.385) with three of the five hits for extra bases. He also had a double on the weekend and accumulated five RBI. The Oxford, Alabama utility player added an RBI in JSU's two-run seventh. Senior Taylor Hawthorne, who delivered the game-winning home run in Saturday's 10-9, blasted another home run in the fourth. Hawthorne joined Simpson and Andrew Naismith with two home runs each on the weekend.
Senior Nolan Greckel matched his career high in hits in a game with a 3-for-4 day at the plate to lead the Jax State line up and reached base four times with a walk.
JSU's new look on the left side of the infield with freshmen Isaac Alexander at shortstop and Cole Frederick at third base made a solid debut on the weekend as the duo had a pair of hits in Sunday's finale. Alexander, from Muscle Shoals, Alabama, turned in a pair of hits and an RBI, while Frederick, a native of Tuscaloosa, Alabama also recorded two hits. Alexander produced five hits in his first collegiate weekend series and was effective defensively throughout the weekend.
Naismith, who had five hits on the weekend, finished off the JSU scoring with an RBI in the seventh.
On the weekend, the Gamecocks finished with 35 hits, including 13 extra base hits and batted .337 in the first three games of the season. A total of 12 different pitchers saw action on the mound during the weekend and accumulated 24 strikeouts and walked just eight.
JSU will travel to Birmingham, Alabama on Tuesday to face Samford for its first midweek action of the season. First pitch is set for 4 p.m. at Joe Lee Griffin Field. The game will be available on the Gamecock Sports Network. The Gamecocks return to Choccolocco Park next weekend for a three-game series against Radford.
