JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Junior Taylor Beshears had quite the debut for the Jacksonville State softball on Friday, going 6-for-8 with three doubles to lead the Gamecocks to an Opening Day split at the River City Leadoff.
 
Beshears went 2-for-4 in a 6-3 win over Army to start the day and then tied a school record with three doubles in her 4-for-4 showing against host Jacksonville in the nightcap. The Gamecocks (1-1) dropped the 8-6 contest after one big inning doomed JSU.
 
Beshears, a native of Trussville, Ala., and a transfer from Wallace State Community College, made quite the impact in her first day on Division I softball. Her 4-for-4 outing in the final game of the day helped her tie the school record for doubles in a game. She became just the sixth player in school history with three in a game and the first since Ella Denes in 2014.
 
She wasn't the only newcomer to stand out on Friday. In the first game of the day, Lex Hull, a Louisville, Ky., native and transfer from South Carolina, went 2-for-3 with a three-run double that broke a 3-3 tie in the fourth and put the deciding score on the board for Jax State. The Gamecocks rode a 12-hit barrage that backed a solid season debut in the circle for junior Faith Sims and handed Army a 6-3 defeat.
 
Sims (1-0) held the Black Knights to just two hits and allowed one earned run to grab her first win of the season. She struck out six to work around eight walks to grind out the win.
 
It was an explosive JSU offense that carried the Gamecocks in their fifth-straight season opening win and the eighth in the last 10 years. Newcomer
 
She and sophomore Alexus Jimmerson each went 2-for-3, while junior Hayley Sims went 3-for-4 with an RBI to lead the Gamecocks at the plate. Jimmerson scored a team-high two runs.
 
Beshears was 2-for-4 in her JSU debut. Freshman Hannahstaysia Weaver and seniors Caitlyn Sapp and Emily Woodruff each had one hit in the win.
 
The game saw Army claim a quick 2-0 lead, when a pair of second-inning errors led to a pair of unearned runs. JSU tied it with two unearned runs of its own in the home half of the third, the last of which came on Hayley Sims' RBI single that found the outfield grass through the right side.
 
Army scored one in the fourth to briefly reclaim the lead, but a four-run JSU fourth that was capped by Hull's double into the left centerfield gap.
 
Courtney Springman (0-1) suffered the loss for the Black Knights after allowing six runs, four earned, on nine hits in just 3 and 2/3 innings of work. She walked two and struck out just one batter before being pulled in the fourth. Taylor Drayton held JSU scoreless on three hits through the final 2 and 1/3 innings.
 
The final game of the day saw JSU jump on the Dolphins early with three runs in the first and another in the second. Anna Chisolm's first homer of the year followed Weaver's leadoff walk and gave the Gamecocks a 2-0 lead, and then Beshears scored on a JU error after her first double of the day.
 
Beshears drove in the next run with an RBI single in the second that gave JSU an early 4-0 lead.
 
The Dolphins started clawing back, getting two in the bottom of the second and then five in the third to take a 7-2 lead. After a Beashears double in the sixth set up Jimmerson's RBI double and cut the lead to two, Jacksonville led off the next frame with a homer that stretched it back to an 8-5 game.
 
Taylor Rogers plated the final run in the seventh with her two-out double and put the tying run in scoring position, but a Chisolm ground out ended the rally.
 
Junior Kirsten Titus (0-1) suffered the loss for JSU, allowing seven runs, six earned, on seven hits in 2 and 1/3 innings of work. Freshman Nicole Rodriguez allowed one run on six hits in 3 and 2/3 innings in her collegiate debut.
 
MAddie Kaufman (1-0) earned the win in relief for the Dolphins, allowing two runs on four hits in 3 and 2/3 frames. Haley Holloway started the game and was chased after surrendering four runs on six hits in just over two innings in the circle.
 
The Gamecocks return to play in the River City Leadoff on Saturday, starting with a 9:30 a.m. game against UConn before taking on Army again at 12 p.m.