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OXFORD – Jacksonville State opened the 2018 Ohio Valley Conference Baseball Tournament with an 8-2 win over Austin Peay on Wednesday morning at Choccolocco Park in Oxford, Alabama.
The fourth-seeded Gamecocks will move on in the winners bracket to face OVC regular season champion and top-seeded Tennessee Tech on Thursday at 11 a.m. at Choccolocco park. JSU improved to 31-23 on the season with the win, while APSU dropped to 30-26 on the season and will fall to the elimination half of the tournament bracket.
Redshirt sophomore
Garrett Farmer worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the first inning, which sparked the Jax State offense as it handed Farmer a 3-0 lead to work with and expanded the lead by scoring at least a run in five of the first six innings. The Huntsville, Alabama right hander put together a gritty performance in his 6.2 innings of work. The All-OVC Second Team selection was touched for two runs in the third, but would retire nine in a row before being lifted with two outs in the seventh. Farmer, who tossed 122 pitches posted five strikeouts and allowed one free pass in 29 batters faced. He moved to 7-2 on the season.
Senior
Clayton Daniel, the new all-time hits leader at JSU and in the OVC, added two more hits to his newly-established record of 326 career hits with a leadoff single in the first inning. He scored on senior
Trent Simpson's RBI single through the left side. Freshman
Isaac Alexander, who was one of three Gamecock newcomers getting their first experience in postseason play, added a pair of RBI on a single up the middle.
JSU answered APSU's two-run third with the first of the three home runs on the day in the JSU order. Senior
Taylor Hawthorne lifted a home run over the right field wall to push the lead to 4-2. Freshman
Cole Frederick joined the home run total with a clast to centerfield in the fifth. Frederick has hit all nine home runs off OVC pitching. Junior
Nic Gaddis, who joined Daniel and Alexander with a multi-hit game, had an RBI single in the sixth, scoring Daniel. Daniel's run was the 200th of his career, which ranks second all-time at JSU.
Freshman
Alex Strachan closed out the JSU scoring with a towering two-run home run in the sixth.
The Gamecocks' bullpen did its job with junior
Austin Brewster finished the final 2.1 innings and collecting four strikeouts.
APSU starter Michael Costanzo, an All-OVC First Team selection was dealt his second loss of the season. Garrett Giovannelli led the Govs with a four-hit day.
Thursday's contest with TTU will be available on the Gamecock Sports Network and the OVC Digital Network.
