OXFORD – Jacksonville State powered its way back into the championship game of the Ohio Valley Conference for the third-straight year, thanks to a convincing 7-1 win over top-seeded Eastern Kentucky on Friday at Choccolocco Park.
The No. 3 seed Gamecocks (32-23) went hitless for the first three innings against Colonels (39-17) ace Mollie Paulick, but their bats came to life in the fourth.
Taylor Beshears started the rout with her third home run in three games in the tournament, a two-run blast in the fourth that gave JSU starter
Faith Sims all she needed.
One day after shutting out Austin Peay, the No. 2 seed in the tournament, Sims (21-9) kept the top seed off of the board until the sixth and held the Colonels to just a run on six hits in her second complete game in as many days. Her gem lifted the Gamecocks into Saturday's 12:30 p.m. title game needing only one win to claim their third tournament title in a row.
Beshears was 2-for-3 with four RBI in the game, improving on an OVC Tournament performance that has seen her go 6-for-11 with three home runs and seven RBI.
Emily Woodruff and
Anna Chisolm also had two hits in the game, while Woodruff scored twice and robbed EKU's Hannah Clark of a home run in the seventh inning.
Beshears got the Gamecocks on the board first in a fashion that has become familiar so far in the OVC Tournament. Right after Chisolm broke up Paulick's no-hit bid with a one-out infield single in the fourth, Beshears broke up the shutout with her third home run in as many games in the tournament.
She fouled two pitches off before launching Paulick's 0-2 pitch over the wall in left to put the Gamecocks up 2-0. With the blast, the transfer from Wallace State Community College has now homered in every game so far in the tournament.
Beshears was responsible for the next two runs for JSU in her fifth-inning at bat. With two outs and the bases loaded, her single to shortstop scored
Jada Terry and
Emily Woodruff followed with heads up baserunning to make it a 4-0 game.
Alexus Jimmerson drove the next pitch into right center, scoring
Caitlyn Sapp from second and stretching JSU's lead to 5-0.
JSU kept adding to the lead in the sixth, getting back-to-back RBI singles from
Caitlyn Sapp and Chisolm that added two insurance runs and gave Sims a 7-0 lead to work with.
The Colonels were able to get on the board against Sims in the sixth, when they generated a two-out run after Sims retired the first two batters of the inning with ease. Zoe Mihalicz doubled and scored on a bloop single from Brooke Harrison that cut JSU's lead to 7-1 and snapped a streak of 13.0 scoreless innings from Sims.
The Colonels threatened in the seventh, when Hannah Clark lifted one over the center field wall, but Woodruff reached over the wall and brought it back to preserve the 7-1 lead.
Paulick (20-6) suffered the loss after surrendering five runs on five hits in 4 and 2/3 innings of work. Murphy McRoberts allowed two runs on four hits in one inning, while Peyton Hutchens recorded the final four outs for EKU.
