JACKSONVILLE – The Jacksonville State baseball team came up on the short end of a 5-3 contest with Samford at a chilly Rudy Abbott Field at Jim Case Stadium on Tuesday afternoon.

The loss drops the Gamecocks to 5-8 on the season, while the Bulldogs improved to 8-3 overall.  The meeting in Jacksonville was the first of two meetings between the two programs this season.  JSU will visit Birmingham on April 30.

Samford opened the contest with four early runs and its starter, Gene Hurst tossed five complete innings and allowed four hits and the first JSU run of the contest in the fifth inning.  The Bulldogs touched Jax State starter, Colin Casey in the four-run first inning and posted six of their hits off Casey.  Junior Corley Woods pitched two innings and allowed the fifth run of the contest in the third.

The Bulldogs strung together four hits in the first plate appearance, highlighted by a two-out RBI single by Taylor Garris, followed by a two-run double from Preston Moore.  Samford manufactured the third inning run with a fielder's choice RBI by Max Pinto.

JSU inserted freshman Michael Gilliland with out in the fourth and silenced a Samford threat with back-to-back outs.  Gilliland held the Bulldog offense in check over the next 4.2 innings and give the Jax State bats a chance to warm up.  The Boaz, Alabama lefty finished with five strikeouts in the 13 batters he faced in just his second outing as a Gamecock.  Gilliland would retire the final 11 hitters he faced.

The Gamecocks put their first run on the board with an RBI with two outs in the fifth.  Sophomore Cole Frederick beat out an infield hit to the left side of the diamond with two outs and took second on a wild pitch.  Junior Chase Robinson, who has four hits in his last three games, singled to right field for the RBI.  Junior Tre Kirklin laced a double down the left field line, but Hurst was able to minimize scoring.

Robinson figured in to JSU's two-run eighth inning with a leadoff walk.  Kirklin collected his second extra base hit of the game with a triple to the gap in right center, plating Robinson.  Kirklin scored on an RBI ground out by Alex Webb.

Senior Nic Gaddis joined Kirklin with a multi-hit game as he turned in a double and a single in the setback.

Jax State will face its second set of Bulldogs on Wednesday with a trip to Athens, Georgia to face No. 9 Georgia at Foley Field.  The game time has been bumped to 2 p.m. CST due to the falling temperatures in the evening.  The game will be available on the SEC Network +, the online platform of the SEC Network.  Wednesday's game is the first of a home-and-home with UGA.  UGA visits Jacksonville on May 8.