JACKSONVILLE – Jacksonville State belted three home runs and the pitching staff accumulated 13 strikeouts to blank Southern Mississippi, 6-0, in the opening game of the weekend series between the two clubs on Rudy Abbott Field at Jim Case Stadium.

The win moved the Gamecocks to 5-4 overall, while the Golden Eagles dropped to 4-5 on the season. The series continues on Saturday with a 4 p.m. first pitch. The contest was pushed up two hours due to the falling temperatures on Saturday evening. The shutout of USM was the first by the Gamecocks since posting an 8-0 win over Central Michigan on February 22 of 2020.

Junior Christian Edwards set the tone for the evening with a stellar performance on the mound and the offense used the home run ball to give him a lead to work with.  Edwards tossed the first 5.2 innings of work, silencing USM by retiring the first nine hitters.  The Hartselle, Alabama righthander fanned four of the first nine he faced and finished with eight strikeouts in the outing. He limited USM to a base hit and a bunt single. The highlight of his outing came in the fourth inning after USM loaded the bases on a walk and the two hits he surrendered. He got out of the jam by striking out the next three Golden Eagles.

Jax State did not waste time against a solid USM pitching staff as junior Cole Frederick drilled the first pitch he saw from Hunter Stanley over the left field fence for his first home run of the season. Frederick nearly added a second round tripper on the night with a double in the third inning.  The Tuscaloosa, Alabama product added his third hit of the day with a single.

The Gamecocks gave Edwards (1-1) more cushion with a two-run fourth inning. Senior Jaylyn Williams started the fourth inning with his second home run in as many games with a delivery over the left field fence. Redshirt sophomore Nash Adams turned in the first of two RBI singles in the contest with a base hit to left field. Adams capped off the scoring for JSU with an RBI in the eighth.
Junior Alex Strachan tallied the third JSU home run of the night with a two-out blast to right center. Junior Isaac Alexander added to JSU's extra bases in the contest with an RBI triple to expand JSU's lead. Alexander posted a three-hit night with a pair of singles to go along with the triple. Williams and Strachan recorded multi-hits games as Strachan had a double, while Williams added a single. JSU had six of its 13 hits against USM pitching go for extra bases.

Redshirt junior Jackson Tavel shook off a tough outing against Samford on Wednesday to keep the USM bats cold. Tavel tossed 1.2 innings and carded a pair of strikeouts and allowed two hits. Redshirt sophomore Trey Fortner closed out the final 1.2 innings, matching Tavel's line of two strikeouts and touched for two hits. USM stranded nine base runners on the night.

Saturday's contest will be available on ESPN+ and can be followed via live stats on JSUGamecockSPorts.com. Tickets are available online and all JSU students and fans 8 years old and younger are admitted free.

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