JACKSONVILLE – Already locked in to the four-team Ohio Valley Conference softball tournament next week, Jacksonville State capped the regular season with a momentum-boosting 4-3 win over the regular season champion Southeast Missouri on Senior Day.
The Gamecocks (23-23) finish the OVC slate with a 21-13 league record in the final year. The upcoming top=seeded Redhawks in next weeks tournament finish 28-15 overall, and dropped to 23-6 in conference competition.
JSU found a way to scratch across four runs on just three hits and one SEMO error to rally back for the late win. After being recognized pregame for her senior accolades,
Alexus Jimmerson proceeded to toss 4.1 innings from the circle and held a hot Redhawks offense to just two earned runs.
Lexi Androlevich would come on in relief of Jimmerson and pitch shutout ball for the final 2.2 frames to register her first win of the season behind JSU's comeback.
Surprisingly two of JSU's three total hits came in the first three at-bats.
Shelby Newsome singled to right with one out for the first baserunner, and moved to third on
Jada Terry's ensuing double to the same spot. The Gamecocks scored first in the bottom of the opening inning when Jimmerson's sac fly to left plated Newsome from third.
SEMO would even things up at 1-1 in the top of the third with a two-out liner from Katie Dreiling through the left side. Dreiling and SEMO would get greedy though on the following hit as she tried to score from first on another hot shot to left. The Gamecock defense got the ball back in time and
Karsen Mosley's strike to
Caroline Lively behind the plate was on target to retire Dreiling at the plate for the final out.
JSU quickly responded behind the speed of center fielder
Keeli Bobbitt. Bobbitt led of the bottom of the third with a double, which would end up being the final hit of the contest for JSU. She stole third during Newsome's at-bat, and beat the throw home to score the go-ahead run after Newsome's sacrifice bunt attempt became a fielder's choice.
A triple down the left field line in the next half inning evened the score again at 2-2, and a Gamecocks error of their own allowed SEMO to regain a 3-2 advantage before Jimmerson retired the final two hitters of the fourth.
Just over an inning later in the bottom of the fifth, JSU pieced together it methodical rally. Bobbitt and
Chaney Phillips each walked to lead off the frame, and both advanced to second and third on a wild pitch. Once Newsome walked to load the bases, an error by the SEMO shortstop off the bat of
Jada Terry tied the game at 3-3 and kept the bases filled. Jimmerson used her second sacrifice fly of the day to bring home Phillips for the eventual winning run, but the Redhawks limited the damage thereafter.
With one out in the top of the sixth, Androlevich gave up her only walk of the game, but a strike-out, throw-out combination to the next SEMO batter retired the side after Lively's dart to Phillips. The seventh had a little more drama after liner back up the middle ricocheted off Androlevich's glove to put Redhawk runner at second and third with only one out. The Lake Butler, Fla., native, received a big assist when Phillips fielded a shot to the left side and threw SEMO out at the plate for the second out. A grounder back to Phillips on the next plat ended it as she threw across to first that time to cement to victory.
Following a three-game series in Jacksonville this weekend, JSU and SEMO will face each other in the opening round of the OVC Tournament down the road in Oxford on Thursday at 1 p.m.
