OXFORD – Jacksonville State put together a late rally on Friday night, but Eastern Kentucky's hot start was too much as JSU dropped the opening game of the Ohio Valley Conference series, 11-7, at Choccolocco Park.
The Gamecocks dropped to 22-16 overall and 11-8 in OVC play, while the Colonels won their seven consecutive game and pushed the overall mark to 23-20 and 13-6 against league foes. The two clubs will meet in the middle game of the three-game weekend series on Saturday at 1 p.m. Admission is free to all JSU Students and all fans 18 years old and younger. The rest of the series will be available on the OVC Digital Network and on the Gamecock Sports Network.
EKU, who made its initial appearance to Choccolocco Park after JSU visited Richmond, Kentucky last season and did not make the OVC postseason tournament in 2017 at the Oxford facility, made a quick acquaintances with park. The Colonels opened the with a five-run first inning off of JSU's Garrett Farmer, which set the tone for the rest of the night. The Colonels used the long ball twice in the first inning with two-run round trippers for Will Johnson and Alex Holderbach. EKU added the final run of the opening frame on an RBI single.
EKU would go on to expand the lead to 9-0 through the first five innings before JSU started crawling back in to the contest. It was an uncharacteristic start for Farmer, who entered the outing as one of the top Friday night arms in the OVC. The Huntsville, Alabama right hander suffered his first loss of the year (5-1) after being touched for seven of the first nine runs and surrendered nine hits along with three walks. Farmer did record five strikeouts.
Farmer was one of five pitchers used by JSU in the opener as Tyler Wilburn was touched for two runs on one hit. The first four Gamecock pitchers issued nine walks with five of the free passes scoring on the night. Sophomore Corley Woods was able to settle the EKU bats for 2.2 innings and allowed one hit. Woods ability to keep EKU from adding to the lead was key for JSU until the offense started clicking.
EKU starter Logan Teague was cruising through the first four innings as he limited JSU to just two hits in the first four plate appearances. Redshirt freshman Grant Atkins broke up the shutout in the fifth with a bunt single that scored Hayden White. White reached with double down into the right field corner. White has now reached base safely in 21 straight games and had two hits in the setback.
JSU started the comeback bid with a big sixth inning that chased Teague. Jax State sent nine batters to the dish with sixth of them recording a hit. The inning was highlighted by a pair of home runs by junior Nic Gaddis and sophomore Andrew Naismith. Gaddis, who had his second bid to hit for the cycle this season, belted a two-run home run just inside the left field foul line. Naismith pulled a solo home run down the opposite line for a solo dinger to give JSU some life. Freshman Cole Frederick had an RBI along with a pinch hit RBI by freshman Alex Strachan.
Gaddis had an infield single and tallied a one-out triple in the seventh and scored on an RBI base hit by Trent Simpson in the seventh.
After just three hits in the first four innings, the Gamecocks tallied nine hits from the fifth inning on against EKU pitching. EKU reliever Casey Collins was touched for the run in the seventh, which brought JSU within a pair of runs at 9-7. Collins would finish the final 3.1 innings and was credited with his first save of the season. He turned in seven strikeouts in relief.
EKU thwarted the JSU momentum with a key two-out, two-RBI double by Daniel McFarland in the eighth. Both runs that scored reached base via a walk.
