BIRMINGHAM – The Jacksonville State baseball team pounded out 30 hits combined in a doubleheader sweep of Murray State on Friday at Young Memorial Field.
The Gamecocks opened the twinbill with 5-3 win in the opener and exploded for a 21-3 series-clinching win in the nightcap. The Gamecocks will be looking for their first OVC sweep of the season. JSU moved to 14-9 overall and improved to 5-3 in league play, while the Racers dropped to 14-13 on the season and 5-6 against OVC foes. The series wraps up on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Young Memorial Field on the UAB campus. Admission is free to the series finale and it will also be available on the OVC Digital Network and streamed on the Gamecock Sports Network.
Jax State combined for a productive offense and solid pitching in the two-game sweep. The Gamecocks limited the Racers to 19 combined hits with 10 of those nine coming in the opening contest. JSU sophomore Garrett Famer picked up the win in the opener after tossing seven solid frames and allowed one run in the outing. Farmer posted seven strikeouts and scattered seven hits. In game two, junior Derrick Adams followed Farmer's lead with another quality pitching outing against OVC competition. Adams turned in six complete innings and did not allow a run. Going back to his 7.2 innings of scoreless work at Eastern Illinois, the Decatur, Alabama native has turned in 14.2 scoreless innings in his last two league outings. Adams allowed three hits and registered a pair of strikeouts.
The jax State offense gave the pitching staff leads to work with early in both games as it jumped on the Racers' starting pitching from the start. In the opener, JSU scored all five of its runs in the first four plate appearance and weathered a late rally by the Racers. The Gamecocks had lone runs in the first and second and added a two-run third, highlighted by an RBI single by freshman Isaac Alexander. Alexander led the Gamecocks in the first game with a 3-for-4 contest at the plate. The Muscle Shoals, Alabama shortstop opened the day with the first triple by JSU this season to start the second inning and had a pair of singles. Senior Trent Simpson also had a multi-hit day in the opener with a 2-for-3 day at the dish, including double. Simpson was credited with his fourth save of the year after shutting things down in the ninth. Simpson would finish the day 4-for-8 with his eighth home run of year in the JSU's five-run first inning of the nightcap.
After opening the game with a 5-0 lead, JSU would go on to score multiple times in six of the eight plate appearances. Senior Taylor Hawthorne, who collected six hits on the day, went 5-of-6 in the second game and delivered five RBI to lead all Gamecocks. The five hits set a new career high for the Prattville, Alabama outfielder and the matched his career mark for RBI in a game.
Including Hawthorne's and Simpson's multiple hits, JSU had five others contribute with multiple hits in JSU's season-high 21 hits. Senior Hayden White had three hits, followed by senior Clayton Daniel, junior Nic Gaddis, sophomore Andrew Naismith and freshman Cole Frederick had two hits each. Naismith and Alexander had home runs in the second game and the team finished with seven doubles for 10 extra base hits in the big offensive production.
JSU will send senior Colton Pate to the mound on Saturday, while MSU will counter with Luke Brown.
