OXFORD - Jacksonville State concluded the 2018 campaign with a tough 14-inning elimination marathon, 11-8, loss to Eastern Kentucky in the Ohio Valley Conference Baseball Championship at Choccolocco Park.

The Gamecocks finished with a 32-25 overall record and finished tied for third in the OVC standings with an 18-12 mark.  JSU, who won its tournament opener on Wednesday over Austin Peay, fell to the elimination half of the bracket on Thursday with a loss to to-seeded Tennessee Tech.  Jax State bounced back with a rout of Southeast Missouri in the first game on Friday after senior Colton Pate tossed a complete game shutout.  EKU survives and will face Morehead State on Saturday in another elimination contest.  The survivor will have to knock off TTU twice to claim the championship.

In a game that became the league's longest postseason game with 14 innings and played and an elapsed time of over five hours, the final out was recorded in the wee hours of Saturday morning. 

The Colonels broke an 8-8 deadlock with three runs in the visiting half of the 14th inning with back-to-back doubles.  Logan Stephens double to the gap in left center field, pushed the eventual game-winning run across the plate as Alex Holderbach scored on the play.  EKU's Ryland Kerr added a pair of insurance runs with a two-run single.

EKU erased an 8-6 deficit with a two-run single by Nick Howie and the Colonels' Aaron Ochsenbein handcuffed the Gamecocks for 5.1 innings and Casey Collins tossed the final two frames and collected the win. 
EKU jumped out to a 4-0 lead after three at bats, but the lead was quickly erased with JSU's seven run bottom half of the third.  The inning was highlighted by freshman Isaac Alexander's grand slam, giving JSU a 7-4 lead. Alexander, who finished 6-for-12 in his first postseason action, was one of six Gamecocks with multiple hits.

After EKU cut it to 7-6 with two runs in the fourth, the Gamecocks extended the lead to 8-6 on Hayden White's RBI double in the fourth.

With pitching a premium in elimination games, JSU's five pitchers combined for 15 strikeouts, paced by a career-high nine strikeouts by freshman Christian Edwards.  Edwards was named to the All-OVC Freshman team.  Senior Grant Chandler, who was making his 95th career appearance, went a career-long 5.2 innings and posted five strikeouts in his final outing in a Gamecock uniform.

The loss wraps up the careers of seven senior Gamecocks that have played an integral part of the baseball program from the first time they stepped on campus.  Clayton Daniel capped his illustrious career as the program's all-time career hit leader with 330 hits, which is also atop the OVC's all-time career hits list.  Daniel played in 226 games and started in 225 of those games.  He also holds the school and league record for doubles in a career with 69.  Taylor Hawthorne was beside Daniel for most of his four seasons as a Gamecock and posted career hitting mark of .323.  Trent Simpson, Hayden White, Nolan Greckel and Pate all made contributions throughout the season and in their career.