JACKSONVILLE – The Jacksonville State baseball team wrapped up the month of March with a 5-4 loss to Samford on Tuesday night at Rudy Abbott Field at
Jim Case Stadium.
The Gamecocks dropped to 11-12 on the season, while the Bulldogs improved to 14-11 overall and sweep the two-game set between the two in-state clubs. Samford downed JSU 10-9 to open the month of March in Birmingham. Jax State will now turn its attention back on the Ohio Valley Conference slate with a trip to Cape Girardeau, Missouri this weekend to face Southeast Missouri in a three-game, two-day weekend series. The opening game will be on Friday, April 2 at 5 p.m. The series wraps up with a 2 p.m. doubleheader on Saturday.
After a sweep of Tennessee Tech this past weekend, including a combined no-hitter to complete the sweep, the Gamecocks put together 13.1 innings without surrendering a hit dating back to the eighth inning of game one of the twinbill. The Bulldogs snapped that string of consecutive innings with their first hit in the fourth inning.
Jax State took the early lead with two runs in the opening frame with RBI singles by senior
Tre Kirklin and
Alex Strachan. The Bulldogs limited JSU from making it a big inning and kept the Gamecocks off the scoreboard until the seventh inning.
Samford took advantage of four walks in the fifth inning, including back-to-back walks with the bases loaded to cap off the three runs that were walked in. The Bulldogs had two of their eight hits in the frame. The runs scored in the inning halted a streak of 23.1 innings without giving up a run by the Gamecocks.
JSU regained the lead with a two-run double by senior
Jaylyn Williams in the seventh inning. Williams, who had a home run against the Bulldogs back on March 3, turned in a three-hit night, including a pair of doubles.
Samford answered with a two-run single in the eighth to take the lead again, but had to fend off a Jax State rally in the eighth and nineth as the tying run was in scoring position in both frames.
Redshirt sophomore
Nash Adams, who was inserted into the leadoff spot in Tuesday's outing, finished with two hits, along with Kirklin and Strachan.
All three games at SEMO will be available via live stats at JSUGamecockSports.com.