BIRMINGHAM – The Jacksonville State baseball team notched its first midweek win of the season with a 4-2 decision over UAB on Tuesday at Regions Field.
The win moved the Gamecocks' overall mark to 6-2 on the season, while the Blazers dropped to 4-2 overall. Jax State will carry a two-game winning streak to Miami, Florida this weekend as it will face Florida International in a three-game set, beginning on Friday.
Timely hitting by the Gamecocks and another stellar outing for the JSU pitching staff keyed the win over the Blazers. Senior Clayton Daniel's RBI single in the fifth broke up a 2-2 deadlock and proved to be the game-winning RBI. After staving off UAB scoring threats in the sixth and seventh seniors Grant Chandler and Trent Simpson closed out the final two innings by retiring the next six UAB batters. Jax State pushed an insurance run across the plate in the eighth with an RBI sacrifice fly by Taylor Hawthorne.
Redshirt freshman Sean Rape earned his first career start in the contest and tossed 2.2 innings and allowing both of UABS runs without allowing a hit. The Blazers plated their two runs in the third on two fielders choice plays. JSU had four early fielding miscues but bounced back to make the needed plays late in the game, including a pair of double plays. The defense responded in the seventh after a pair of UAB runners reached base. Junior transfer Austin Brewster induced a fly ball to left field to Nolan Greckel and the runner at second was erased by Greckel trying to advance to third. Brewster would end the threat by picking off the runner at first.
Brewster was one of four guys used by JSU out of the bullpen. The relievers allowed just four UAB hits in the contest. Including Saturday's no-hitter, the Gamecock arms have surrendered just four hits in 18 innings of work. Redshirt sophomore Tyler Wilburn turned in one of his best outings so far with 2.2 innings-pitched and posted three strikeouts to earn his first career win as a Gamecock.
It was a mirror image of Saturday's final game with Radford as Chandler retired the Blazers in order in the eighth to set up Trent Simpson for the save opportunity. Simpson picked up his second ave of the season and fourth of his career.
JSU took an early 1-0 lead in the second with an RBO sacrifice fly, scoring Andrew Naismith. Junior Nic Gaddis, who was the only Gamecock with multiple hits, had a game-tying RBI sacrifice fly in the fourth.
Jax State finished with nine hits on the evening and eight of the nine hitters in the order had a hit, but all nine reached base.
JSU continues its tour against Conference USA foes with the Panthers of FIU. Friday's game will get started at 6 p.m. CST. Saturday's first pitch is set for 5 p.m. CST, followed by Sunday's series finale at 11 a.m. CST. All three games will be available via live stats at JSUGamecockSports.com along with a video feed for a minimal charge.
