EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. – The Jacksonville State softball team dropped a pair of Ohio Valley Conference games at Southern Illinois-Edwardsville on Saturday.
The Gamecocks (23-19, 11-3 OVC) fell on a walk-off homer by the Cougars (19-14, 9-3 OVC) in the first game of the day before falling 3-1 in the nightcap. With the losses, JSU falls into second place in the league standings behind Eastern Kentucky.
The opening game saw SIUE score a run in the first but then watched the Gamecocks jump on the Cougars with a big second inning. JSU plated four runs in the frame, the first two coming on
Hayley Sims' two-run homer to right field.
The inning continued with
Ryann Luna's double into the right centerfield gap. That would set up a squeeze bunt from
Emily Woodruff that made it a 3-1 game and then an
Anna Chisolm triple that put the 4-1 advantage on the board.
SIUE got one back in the home half of the second before both teams exchanged zeroes for the next two innings. The Cougars tied the game in the fifth with a pair of runs before claiming the win on Reagan Curtis' game winner to center in the seventh.
Faith Sims started the game for JSU and limited SIUE to three runs on five hits in four innings in the circle.
Alexus Jimmerson (6-4) suffered the loss after allowing two runs on just three hits in two innings of relief work.
Corrina Rivas started the game for SIUE and allowed four runs on seven hits in six innings of work before making way for Emily Ingles. Ingles earned the win in relief after throwing a scoreless seventh, setting up two wins on the day for her.
Sims and Luna each had two hits in the game to lead JSU.
In the nightcap, JSU struck first with a run in the second on
Caitlyn Sapp's RBI double into the left field corner that scored
Lex Hull after she was hit by a pitch.
Freshman
Nicole Rodriguez shut down the SIUE bats for four innings, before the Cougars broke through in the fifth with a pair of runs on an Alyssa Heren homer. An Alana Cobb-Adams single in the sixth scored another, and Ingles kept JSU at bay.
She tossed seven innings and limited the Gamecocks to a run on three hits, while Rodriguez suffered the loss after giving up three runs on seven hits in her six-inning outing that also featured seven strike outs.
The Gamecocks travel to Charleston, Ill., where they will face Eastern Illinois in a 1 p.m. doubleheader on Sunday.
