Friday, March 5
JACKSONVILLE
6:00 P.M.
Jax State
vs
Southern Mississippi
3/4/2021 2:47:00 PM | Baseball
JACKSONVILLE – Jacksonville State returns to the home turf with a three-game weekend series with perennial Conference USA power Southern Mississippi on Rudy Abbott Field at Jim Case Stadium.
The series gets started on Friday at 6 p.m., followed by a 4 p.m. start on Saturday and the series finale on Sunday at 1 p.m. Saturday's game time was pushed up a couple of hours with the temperatures will drop in the evening hours. All three games will be available on ESPN+ and can be followed via live stats at JSUGamecockSports.com.
Both clubs enter the weekend looking to shake off midweek losses. The Gamecocks dropped their one-run setback with a 10-9 road loss at Samford on Wednesday. The Golden Eagles fell to in-state rival Mississippi State, 4-1, in a neutral site contest played at the Mississippi Braves facility in Pearl, Mississippi.
This weekend's series between JSU and USM will be the first time the two programs have met in the regular season. The Gamecocks and Golden Eagles have faced off against each other in NCAA Regionals. USM won the previous meetings in 2006 and 2010 postseason. Jax State dropped a 6-2 decision in an elimination game at the 2006 NCAA Tuscaloosa Regional. USM eliminated JSU, 19-6, in the 2010 NCAA Auburn Regional.
Through two-plus weeks of the season, JSU ranks second in the Ohio Valley Conference in pitching with a 4.56 earned run average and has the third-best batting average in the league at .261. Jax State ranks fifth in the OVC in fielding percentage (.973).
The Gamecocks pitching rotation will stay intact with junior Christian Edwards starting on the mound in the series opener. In his last outing against Valparaiso last week, he went a career-long 4.2 innings, scattered four Valpo hits and posted four strikeouts. Redshirt junior Dylan Hathcock will loom for a repeat performance from last Saturday after tossing six clean innings, allowing three hits, and accumulated seven strikeouts. Junior Coli Casey turned in a quality start in the nightcap of the doubleheader with Valpo. He pitched the first five innings with five strikeouts.
Senior Alex Webb leads JSU in hits with 11, including a double and a triple through the first eight games of the season. Webb also leads the club in RBI with seven and has reached base in every game this season. Senor Tre Kirklin will carry a 16-game hitting streak into the weekend with a hit in the final eight games of the 2020 season and hitting safely in each game in the early portion of the 2021 season. Kirklin has a pair of home runs, two doubles and a triple. Kirklin and junior Isaac Alexander have six RBI on the season.
For more information on the JSU baseball team, follow the Gamecocks on Twitter (@JSUGamecocksBB) and Instagram (@JSUGamecocksBB). For more on all Gamecocks sports teams, follow the official social media accounts of JSU Athletics on Twitter (@JSUGamecocks), Facebook (Facebook.com/JSUGamecocks) and Instagram (@JSUGamecocks).
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The series gets started on Friday at 6 p.m., followed by a 4 p.m. start on Saturday and the series finale on Sunday at 1 p.m. Saturday's game time was pushed up a couple of hours with the temperatures will drop in the evening hours. All three games will be available on ESPN+ and can be followed via live stats at JSUGamecockSports.com.
Both clubs enter the weekend looking to shake off midweek losses. The Gamecocks dropped their one-run setback with a 10-9 road loss at Samford on Wednesday. The Golden Eagles fell to in-state rival Mississippi State, 4-1, in a neutral site contest played at the Mississippi Braves facility in Pearl, Mississippi.
This weekend's series between JSU and USM will be the first time the two programs have met in the regular season. The Gamecocks and Golden Eagles have faced off against each other in NCAA Regionals. USM won the previous meetings in 2006 and 2010 postseason. Jax State dropped a 6-2 decision in an elimination game at the 2006 NCAA Tuscaloosa Regional. USM eliminated JSU, 19-6, in the 2010 NCAA Auburn Regional.
Through two-plus weeks of the season, JSU ranks second in the Ohio Valley Conference in pitching with a 4.56 earned run average and has the third-best batting average in the league at .261. Jax State ranks fifth in the OVC in fielding percentage (.973).
The Gamecocks pitching rotation will stay intact with junior Christian Edwards starting on the mound in the series opener. In his last outing against Valparaiso last week, he went a career-long 4.2 innings, scattered four Valpo hits and posted four strikeouts. Redshirt junior Dylan Hathcock will loom for a repeat performance from last Saturday after tossing six clean innings, allowing three hits, and accumulated seven strikeouts. Junior Coli Casey turned in a quality start in the nightcap of the doubleheader with Valpo. He pitched the first five innings with five strikeouts.
Senior Alex Webb leads JSU in hits with 11, including a double and a triple through the first eight games of the season. Webb also leads the club in RBI with seven and has reached base in every game this season. Senor Tre Kirklin will carry a 16-game hitting streak into the weekend with a hit in the final eight games of the 2020 season and hitting safely in each game in the early portion of the 2021 season. Kirklin has a pair of home runs, two doubles and a triple. Kirklin and junior Isaac Alexander have six RBI on the season.
For more information on the JSU baseball team, follow the Gamecocks on Twitter (@JSUGamecocksBB) and Instagram (@JSUGamecocksBB). For more on all Gamecocks sports teams, follow the official social media accounts of JSU Athletics on Twitter (@JSUGamecocks), Facebook (Facebook.com/JSUGamecocks) and Instagram (@JSUGamecocks).
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Players Mentioned
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