MACON, Ga. – A couple of career performances paced the Jacksonville State softball team to an opening day sweep at the Mercer Invitational on Friday.
The Gamecocks (2-0) used
Faith Sims' first career no-hitter to open the 2019 season with a 6-0 win over Army and then used a two-homer, six-RBI day from
Kirsten Titus to hand Rutgers an 11-2 defeat in the second game. Titus also started the second game and earned the win in the circle.
Sims' first career no-hitter was JSU's first since 2017, but it was the first seven-inning no-no by a Gamecock pitcher since Tiffany Harbin's gem against Murray State on March 18, 2012. It was the first Opening Day no-hitter by a Gamecock since Harbin and Casey Akenberger tossed them back-to-back in 2014 against Northern Kentucky and Mississippi Valley State, respectively. Both of those were five-inning games.
Titus' performance was equally impressive. The fourth-year senior from Evans, Ga., entered the day with just two career at bats for JSU, spending the majority of her career in the circle. She did both on Friday, tossing 5 and 2/3 scoreless innings to earn the win, while belting her first two career hits over the wall at Sikes Field on Mercer's campus.
Also shining at the plate for JSU on the day was senior catcher
Lex Hull. The Louisville, Ky., native went a combined 3-for-6 with a double, home run and five RBI to lead JSU offensively.
Sims (1-0) controlled the opener from the start, striking out five of her first eight outs of the game. The Cordova, Ala., native allowed just three base runners to reach in the game, two hit batters and one reaching on an error, and only had one runner reach second.
Her final line was an impressive one, tossing seven innings with no runs, no hits, nine strikeouts and no walks. She needed just 89 pitches, 57 of which were strikes, to dispose of the Black Knights.
In a game where she needed very little run support, she got plenty from fellow senior and battery mate Hull. Her catcher went 2-for-3 with a 2-run home run in the third and an RBI single in the fourth.
Hannahstaysia Weaver drove in a run and scored another from the leadoff spot in the lineup, while two runs scored on an error that allowed
Taylor Beshears to reach in the Gamecocks' five-run third inning.
Taylor Drayton (0-1) suffered the loss for Army, allowing six runs, five earned, on four hits and four walks. She struck out three in six innings in the circle.
The Gamecocks wasted no time getting going in the second game of the day, putting seven runs on the board in the top of the first against Rutgers. Hull started the scoring with an RBI grounder that scored
Karsen Mosley after she led off her first collegiate game with her first collegiate hit.
The big blow came two batters later, when Titus blasted her first three-run blast to left center. The first career homer for the Evans, Ga., native was also her first career hit. The fourth-year player has spent most of her career in the circle, accumulating just one at bat in each of the last two seasons.
She staked JSU to a 4-0 lead that would stretch to 7-0 after freshman
Sidney Wagnon's two-run double and Mosley's RBI single.
After Hull's fifth RBI of the day came on her sixth-inning double and gave JSU an 8-0 lead, Titus put the final three runs on the board with a three-run shot to right center.
Titus (1-0) started the game in the circle and held the Scarlet Knights off the board for five innings. Freshman
Macy Bearden entered in the sixth but made way for Titus after Rutgers scored two and loaded the bases. She got the final two outs to seal the win and cap her career day.
Whitney Jones (0-1) suffered the loss for the Scarlet Knights after allowing seven runs on six hits in four innings of work. She walked four and struck out two before Cambria Keefer tossed the final two innings and allowed four runs on five hits and a walk.
The Gamecocks continue play in the Mercer Invitational on Saturday, when they play the same two teams. They will face Rutgers at 9 a.m. CT before taking on Army at 11:15 a.m. CT.
