CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – Jacksonville State scored three runs in the ninth inning and held off Austin Peay for a 7-4 win in the final game of a three-game series on Monday, snapping the Governors' 10-game win streak.
 
Freshman Alex Howard broke a 4-4 tie in the ninth with a pinch-hit leadoff home run, and then Alexus Jimmerson followed with her second home run of the game. A hard hit ball by Caroline Lively couldn't be handled at short to allow the third run to plate and put the Gamecocks (13-18, 11-9 Ohio Valley Conference) up by three in the second extra frame.
 
Jimmerson, who went 2-for-4 with three RBI, two homers and a walk, also earned the win in the circle after pitching 6 and 2/3 shutout innings of relief. She limited the Governors (20-9, 15-7 OVC) to three hits in her appearance out of the bullpen. 
 
Austin Peay led early after scoring a pair of runs in the second and two more in the third, forcing the Gamecocks to play from behind. Jada Terry got JSU on the board in the fifth, when her single to center scored Savannah Sudduth from second. Jimmerson followed with a two-run blast to right and cut the deficit to 4-3.
 
Sudduth tied the game in the top of the sixth, thanks to her two-out single to left center that plated Lauren Hunt from second after she reached via a pinch-hit walk.
 
Neither team could score again until JSU's big ninth inning, which was started by Howard's leadoff homer to right. She drove Kelsey Gross' 1-2 pitch out for her second pinch-hit homer of the season and put JSU up by a run.
 
Jimmerson connected two batters later to stretch the lead to two, and Lively's hot shot to short was misplayed by Brooke Pfefferle to allow Karsen Mosley to score and give Jimmerson a three-run lead to work with. 
 
A pair of runners reached with two outs in the ninth to bring the tying run to the plate, but Gross' soft liner fell in shortstop's Chaney Phillip's glove to end the game.
 
Gross (7-2) suffered the loss after allowing two runs on four hits in 2 and 2/3 innings in the circle. Jordan Benefiel tossed the first 5 and 2/3 innings, giving up four runs on six hits and four walks. Harley Mullins recorded the last two outs in the ninth and gave up an unearned run in the process.
 
Hannah Brown started the game for JSU and went the first 2 and 1/3 innings, allowing four runs, three earned, on six hits.
 
Sudduth, Terry, Jimmerson and Mosley each had two hits to lead the JSU offense.
 
The Gamecocks will return home on Thursday, when they host in-state rival Samford at 5 p.m. at University Field. Admission is free for JSU students and all fans ages 18 and under. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+.