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OXFORD – Jacksonville State dropped a 5-2 decision to top-seeded Tennessee Tech in the second round of the 2018 Ohio Valley Conference Baseball Championship on Thursday at Choccolocco Park.

The loss drops JSU to the elimination bracket and will face either Morehead State or Southeast Missouri, the second winners bracket contest on Thursday.  Friday's game is set for 3 p.m. at Choccolocco Park.  If the Gamecocks win the first game on Friday, they will play a second game later in the day.

OVC Pitcher of the Year Travis Moths and the conference's Player of the Year, Kevin Strohschein proved why they were tabbed the top performers in the OVC as Moths kept JSU off balance throughout the day en route to collecting his 13th win of the season.  Moths tossed 7.1 innings and limited JSU to four hits in the outing and posting eight strikeouts.  Strohschein was responsible for most of Tech's offense with a 4-for-4 day at the plate, highlighted by a two-out, three-run home run in the fifth to expand Tech's lead to 5-0.

He gave the Golden Eagles the lead with a two-out RBI single in the third off of Jax State starter Derrick Adams.  Adams, who was saddled with the loss, allowed all five runs in 5.1 innings of work and touched for seven hits.  The junior lefty recorded five strikeouts.

JSU broke up Tech's shutout bid with and RBI by senior Taylor Hawthorne and brought the tying run to the plate after TTU's Ethan Roberts ran in to some trouble in the ninth.  Senior Trent Simpson, who had two of JSU's six hits, started the last at bat with an infield single, followed by a walk issued to senior Hayden White and freshman Isaac Alexander collected his second hit of the day and fourth of the tournament.  Roberts induced an RBI double play ball by Andrew Naismith to thwart the JSU comeback bid.

Hawthorne had a double in the contest, while senior Clayton Daniel, the all-time hits leader at JSU and in the OVC pushed his career hit total to 327 with an infield base hit.

Friday's action will be available on the Gamecock Sports Network and the OVC Digital Network.