JACKSONVILLE - Jacksonville State hits the midway point of the Ohio Valley Conference schedule with a key weekend series with Belmont on Rudy Abbott Field at Jim Case Stadium. 

Friday's series opener is set for 6 p.m., followed by Saturday's 6 p.m. start.  The two clubs wrap up the series on Sunday at 1 p.m.  Tickets are available on JSUGamecockSports.com.  All JSU students and fans 18 years old and younger are admitted free. 

The Gamecocks and Bruins are two of the four teams that are tied atop the OVC standing entering the weekend.  JSU, Belmont, Morehead State and Murray State all have a winning percentage of .667.  The Bruins have two more wins (10) than the other three clubs.  Belmont is off to its best start in OVC play at 10-5. 

JSU starts the weekend having won five-of-its-last-six league contests after sweeping Tennessee Tech in its previous home set and taking its first road series of the season last weekend at Southeast Missouri.  JSU has won six-of-the-last-seven games after scoring 11 unanswered runs on Tuesday night to down No. 19 Auburn.

Scoring could be at a premium on Friday as two of the league's top pitchers will take the mound.  Jax State's Garrett Farmer leads the OVC in earned run average with a 2.06 mark through eight starts.  Belmont will counter with Casey Queener, the preseason OVC Pitcher of the Year.  Farmer is averaging a strikeout per inning with 52 strikeouts in 52.1 innings of work.  The Huntsville, Alabama native averages nearly nine strikeouts per outing (8.94).  Opposing batters are hitting .223 off the right hander.  Queener is 3-1 overall and an ERA just over three runs.

As the temperature rises to baseball conditions, so have the JSU bats.  In the last seven games, the Gamecocks are hitting .316 as a team and has scored 56 runs over that time frame.  Junior Alex Webb leads the club with a .416 average at the dish with 11 total hits and six extra base hits.  Junior Chase Robinson has raised his overall average to .288 after hitting .385 over the last seven games.  The Pell City, Alabama native has posted 10 hits and a team-best 1011 RBI.

Senior Nic Gaddis continues to pace the Jax State lineup with a team-high .352 average.  Gaddis was recently named to the Buster Posey Award Watch List, which is awarded to the s best NCAA Division I catcher.  The Trenton, Georgia native has reached base in all but two games this season.

All three games will be streamed on ESPN+, the online platform of ESPN.