CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – Jacksonville State inched closer to capturing the 2019 Ohio Valley Conference regular season championship with a 4-3 series-opening win in 10 innings over Austin Peay on Thursday night at Raymond C. Hand Park.
The Gamecocks, who have four walk-off wins in the last five games, plated the go-ahead run in the 10th with a sacrifice fly by junior
Devin Brown with the bases loaded. The winner of the final weekend series of the regular season will be crowned the regular season champion and securing the top seed in the 2019 OVC Baseball Championship in Marion, Illinois next week. Jax State won its seventh consecutive game and improved to 32-21 (20-8) on the season. APSU dropped to 30-21 overall and 19-9 in the OVC. Friday's game two of the series is set for 6 p.m.
Brown, from Smiths Station, Alabama lifted a fly ball to right field to push the winning run across the board. Senior
Nic Gaddis, who had a pair of hits on the night, started the 10th with a lead off single. Sophomore
Isaac Alexander bunted to move the runner over but reached on a bunt single. Junior
Andrew Naismith worked a walk to load the bases ahead of Brown. The second baseman put an 0-2 pitch in play to score Gaddis.
The Gamecocks started fast with a pair of runs in the first inning with a lead off home run by junior
Tre Kirklin. Kirlin became the first Gamecock to lead off a game with a home run since Michael Bishop started a game with SIU Edwardsville with a home run on March 15, 2014. Scoring Alexander had an RBI single, sophomore
Cole Frederick, who finished with a three-hit night. Gaddis added JSU's third run with an RBI double.
The three-run cushion was all redshirt junior
Garrett Farmer needed until the Govs erased the deficit with a run in the seventh and tied it with a two-run eighth. Farmer was phenomenal for the six innings before APSU broke up the shutout with a lead off home run by Parker Phillips. Farmer matched his career high in strikeouts with 12 in the outing. It's the third time he has fanned 12 in an outing and the second time this season. The Huntsville, Alabama righty turned in 12 strikeouts against Florida International on Match 1.
Sophomore
Jackson Tavel kept APSU from taking the lead with one out in the eighth with the bases loaded. He induced a ground ball back to the mound to start a home to first base inning-ending double play. Sophomore
Christian Edwards finished the final two frames and tallied three strikeouts. He picked up his sixth win of the season.
Friday's contest will be available on ESPN+ and aired on the Gamecock Sports Network.
