OXFORD – Senior pitcher Colton Pate picked a perfect time to throw a complete game when his Jacksonville State club needed a great effort in an elimination contest against Southeast Missouri on Friday in the Ohio Valley Conference Baseball Championship at Choccolocco Park.

All he did was turn in JSU's first complete game since JSU's improbable run to the OVC Tournament title in 2014.  Former Gamecock Casey Antley went the distance in JSU's 13-2 win over Eastern Illinois. It's the second shutout for JSU in an OVC Tournament contest as it blanked Eastern Kentucky in its initial OVC postseason contest in 2004.  Pate's shutout performance was the first complete game shutout since former Gamecock Hunter Rivers blanked SIUE on April 30, 2011 (7-inning game).  It is JSU's first nine-inning complete game shutout by a JSU pitcher since joining the league in 2004.  JSU has now accumulated its eighth shutout of the season and the second against SEMO in 2018.

Pate, from Lincoln, Alabama, limited the Redhawks to two hits and registered six strikeouts in the outing.  He did not surrender his lone walk on his stat line until the eighth inning.  In two starts against SEMO this season, he has tossed 17.2 innings and allowed one run on six hits and collected 15 strikeouts. 

The win advanced JSU to a Friday evening contest with sixth-seeded EKU.  First pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Choccolocco Park.

Pate received run support from the start as JSU jumped out to a 3-0 lead on sophomore Andrew Naismith's two-out, three-run home run to left center field.  Naismith was one of four Gamecocks with multiple hits with an RBI double later in the contest.  Senior Taylor Hawthorne finished 4-for-5 on the day, including a towering solo home run that started the four-run fifth for JSU.  The Prattville, Alabama outfielder had a pair of singles and a double.

Jax State pounced on six SEMO pitchers for 14 hits on the day.  Freshman Cole Frederick and senior Nolan Greckel posted two hits each in the win.