OXFORD – The Jacksonville State softball team's season came to an end on Saturday with a pair of losses to Southeast Missouri in the Championship of the 2019 Ohio Valley Conference Softball Tournament at Choccolocco Park.
 
The second-seeded Gamecocks (36-14) fell 8-2 to the top-seeded Redhawks (44-16) in the first game that forced an if-necessary, winner-take-all second game. SEMO jumped out to a 6-0 lead and had to hold off a late JSU rally for the 6-5 win.
 
The Redhawks earn their first trip to the NCAA Regionals since 1999, while JSU misses out on what would have been a fourth-straight appearance.
 
Seniors Faith Sims, Anna Chisolm and Taylor Beshears were all named to the All-Tournament team, representing a seven-member senior class that leaves JSU having won four rings. The group that also includes Lex Hull, Kirsten Titus, Hayley Sims and Amber Jones played their final game to wrap up a four-year stretch that saw JSU win two regular-season titles and three tournament titles.
 
Freshman Karsen Mosley also had an impressive tournament, going 6-for-13 (.462) with four runs scored over four games.
 
Lex Hull dented the scoreboard in the second with a long home run to right. The senior from Louisville, Ky., drove Haley Thogmartin's 1-1 pitch into the second row of cars in the parking lot beyond the wall and put JSU up 1-0.
 
The Redhawks answered in the top of the third, scoring two runs by playing small ball. After a leadoff single and fly out to left, the ball never left the infield again. Three bunts and an RBI fielder's choice to short led to the two runs that put SEMO up 2-1.
 
The Gamecocks tied it in the home half of the inning, when a one-out double from Karsen Mosley set up an RBI single through the left side by Anna Hood. Hood stepped in after the Redhawks intentionally walked Taylor Beshears to get to her and lined Thogmartin's 2-1 pitch into left and scored Mosley from second. It was JSU's first run of the tournament not scored on a home run.
 
SEMO got it right back in the fourth on a two-run homer from Mykaela Arellanes that gave the Redhawks the lead again, this time at 4-2. They added another in the inning and three more in the fifth to stretch their lead to 8-2.
 
JSU couldn't get any closer and avoid forcing the if-necessary game.
 
Thogmartin (22-6) earned the win after allowing two runs on eight hits in 6 and 2/3 innings of work. JSU put a pair of runners on in the seventh to force the Redhawks to go to Kaylee Anderson to get the final out.
 
Sims (24-5) suffered the loss after allowing five runs on five hits in 3 and 1/3 innings. She struck out three and walked three.
 
The freshman duo of Sidney Wagnon and Karsen Mosley each recorded two hits in the top two spots in the order, accounting for half of the Gamecocks' hits total. Arellanes was 3-for-3 with four RBI in the leadoff spot for the Redhawks.
 
In the final game, SEMO picked up where it left off in game one, getting two runs in the first on a two-run Ashley Ellis single and then another in the second on Arellanes' RBI double.
 
While Rachel Rook kept the Gamecocks' offense in check, the Redhawks took control of the game in the fifth with three runs on four hits. Ellis drove in two on a double to left center and Rachael Donald plated the other on a single to right to make it a 6-0 SEMO lead.
 
The Gamecocks finally got on the board in the sixth, when Jada Terry belted a leadoff homer to left, the first round tripper of the season for the sophomore from Trinity, Ala. The shot cut SEMO's lead to 6-1 and chased Rook from the circle.
 
JSU kept it going in the top of the sixth, getting a run on an Anna Chisolm rope that ate up shortstop Sarah Messex and another on a Beshears single just out of reach of a leaping Messex.
 
Hull cut the deficit to one when she took Thogmartin's 3-2 pitch the other way to score Chisolm and Beshears and make it a 6-5 game. Thogmartin was able to get the final out of the inning and then retire the Gamecocks in the seventh to seal the win and send SEMO to the NCAA Regional for the first time since 1999. 
 
Rook (10-4) earned the win for the Redhawks after limiting the Gamecocks to a run on three hits in just over five innings of work. She struck out three and didn't issue a walk.
 
Nicole Rodriguez (8-5) was tagged with the loss for JSU. The sophomore surrendered five runs on six hits and three walks in four innings. Kirsten Titus tossed one inning, allowing a run on two hits, and Sims tossed a scoreless seventh.