COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – Jacksonville State softball picked up a split in its midweek doubleheader at Tennessee Tech on Tuesday afternoon in Cookeville, Tennessee.
Trying to stay within the top four of the Ohio Valley Conference with three weekends of regular-season play remaining, the Gamecocks (17-20, 15-10 OVC) rallied late for a 4-3 win in Tuesday's opener, before dropping the nightcap, 4-1. The loss to Tech (18-21, 12-12 OVC) in game two of the doubleheader snapped a five-game conference winning streak for JSU.
Reagan Watkins picked up her fifth win of the season in game one, going the distance and allowing just seven hits. She kept JSU on par with the Golden Eagles while the Gamecock offense failed to get anything going as TTU's Haeli Bryson tossed a gem of her own from the circle.
JSU entered the sixth inning still searching for its first hit of the day, and only one baserunner after a first-inning error. The Gamecocks only trailed by a run after a solo homer in the third from TTU. Bryson again retired the first two batters of the sixth, but a single by
Savannah Sudduth opened the gates for Jax State.
Shelby Newsome followed it up with a triple to center to bring home Sudduth and even the game at 1-1. The deadlock didn't last long as
Jada Terry sent the first pitch of the next at-bat over the left field fence for a two-run homerun, suddenly sending JSU to the lead late in the game.
TTU's starter, Bryson, did her job to help get her runs back in the bottom half of the inning with a leadoff hit and later scored on a throwing error. After Tech tied things up at 3-3 without any outs looking to bounce right back in front, Watkins closed the door with three-straight outs.
In the seventh, JSU would get just its fourth and final hit of the game, but the solo homerun off the bat of
Megan Fortner was all it took to propel the Gamecocks back on top. Watkins turned the Golden Eagles away again in the bottom of the frame with a strikeout, pop-out and line-out in nine pitches to secure the first game of the day.
Nicole Rodriguez took to the circle for the second matchup, where she would scatter five hits and four walks over six innings of work. Like most of the opening game, the JSU bats were unable to add much support as Rodriguez would fall to 5-6 on the season despite just two earned runs allowed.
TTU took the lead early in the first inning with a run off a double from Paxton Grimes. JSU answered in the top of the second on Fortner's second solo shot of the night. After a quiet third innings, Tech tacked on another go-ahead run in the fourth on a homer from Sydney Love-Baker, and plated two more unearned run in the sixth after a two-out error extended the inning for Rodriguez. JSU had baserunners in each of the final three innings, but couldn't put together the timely hits they were able to in game one for the late comeback.
The Gamecocks travel to Morehead State and Tennessee State for three-game series the next two weekends before returning home to University Field for the three games with Southeast Missouri May 8-9.
