Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 OXFORD – Jacksonville State closed the 2018 regular season on a strong note on Friday by sweeping Tennessee Tech on Senior Day at Choccolocco Park.
 
The Gamecocks (29-23, 16-6 Ohio Valley Conference) came to life at the plate late in game one to pull away with a 5-2 win and then capped the day with a 6-2 win over the Golden Eagles (16-33, 7-15 OVC) in the final game. The sweep secures the Gamecocks of at least the No. 3 seed in next week's OVC Tournament, which starts Wednesday at Choccolocco Park.
 
The senior class of Leila Chambers, Taylor Rogers, Caitlyn Sapp and Emily Woodruff played their final regular season games in a JSU uniform on Friday and capped an impressive run in OVC play over the past four years. They will finish their careers with a combined 75-13 record in OVC games and with two regular season and at least two tournament titles. The Gamecocks will go for their third-straight tournament crown next week.
 
At the plate, the Gamecocks recorded nine hits, three that came from Hayley Sims' 3-for-3 game. The Carrollton, Ga., native doubled, scored once and drove in two runs in the win.
 
The Golden Eagles got things going early in the first game, scoring a pair of runs on a Hallie Davis two-run homer in the second inning. That would be the only blemish on ace Faith Sims' line in the opener. The junior from Cordova, Ala., allowed the two runs on just three hits in the complete game win that improved her to 18-9 on the season.
 
JSU cut the deficit in half in the home half of the fourth, when they got on the board on Hayley Sims RBI single that plated Taylor Beshears. The Gamecocks took the lead in the fifth, when Anna Chisolm launced a 2-1 pitch from TTU's Taylor Waldrop over the wall in straightaway center field for a two-run homer.
 
Ryann Luna led off the JSU sixth and then scored on Hayley Sims' double that followed. Sims plated JSU's final run on a sac fly from Woodruff later in the frame.
 
Waldrop (10-12) took the loss in the circle for the Golden Eagles, surrendering five runs on nine hits in six innings of work.
 
In the nightcap, the Gamecocks scored a first-inning run without recording a hit. Tech starter Kayla Hughes walked the bases loaded to start the bottom of the first and then gave up a sac fly to Alexus Jimmerson that put JSU on the board.
 
The Gamecocks scored three in the second, with the first two also coming before their first hit of the game. A walk, sac bunt and a fielding error set up Sapp, whose squeeze bunt plated Chambers to make it a 2-0 game. A wild pitch scored the next run and put JSU on top 3-0.
 
Chisolm drove a Hughes pitch up the middle for the first hit of the game and scored Sapp to make it a 4-0 JSU lead.
 
Another Davis homer in the fourth put Tech on the board, but that would be all the Golden Eagles would get before JSU plated an insurance run in the fifth and another in the sixth. Woodruff Doubled in Jada Terry, who made her first appearance on the field since suffering an injury on March 25, from first after she walked. 
 
Ryann Luna drove in JSU's final run on her RBI single that plated Beshears in the sixth.
 
Freshman Nicole Rodriguez (3-3) went the distance in the finale, limiting the Golden Eagles to two runs on six hits. Hughes (5-12) suffered the loss after giving up five runs on four hits in her 4 and 2/3 innings in the circle.