TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The Jacksonville State baseball team dropped its first road contest of the season with a 6-3 setback to Alabama on Tuesday afternoon at Sewell-Thomas Stadium on the UA campus.
With a gauntlet of an early schedule, the Gamecocks dropped to 0-4 on the season, while the Crimson Tide improved to 4-0 in the early going of 2022. Jax State will travel to Southern Mississippi for its first weekend series on the road. The series with the Golden Eagles in Hattiesburg, Miss. Will get started on Friday evening at 6 p.m. The weekend action continues on Saturday at 2 p.m. and Sunday at 1 p.m.
The Crimson Tide plated runs in each of the first four innings, solid pitching from Jacob McNairy and five double plays to secure the win.
JSU scored all three of its runs on the home runs with junior
Carson Crowe connecting on his second home run of the season to start the fourth inning and senior
Alex Strachan drilled his first home run of the season in the sixth. Strachan's two-run blast trimmed the Crimson Tide lead to 5-3, but UA expanded the lead with a solo run in the sixth. Both teams finished with nine hits on the day as JSU had two players with multiple hits. Junior
Brooks Bryan, a transfer catcher from Charleston Southern finished 3-for-3, while Strachan had a pair of hits. Senior
Cole Frederick, freshman
Brennen Norton and Sophomore
Mason Maners all recorded singles.
UA had two players with multiple hits on the day against JSU pitching. Drew Williamson and Owen Diodati finished with two hits and an RBI each.
JSU sophomore
Jake Peppers started the contest on the mound and tossed 3.2 innings. He suffered the loss after being touched for five runs on seven hits. The Gamecock bullpen limited the Crimson Tide to a pair of hits and recorded a pair of strikeouts. Junior
Trevor Andrews was effective for his second appearance on the mound with 1.2 innings of work, while freshman
Cole Turner finished the final 2.2 innings. Turner, from Moulton, Alabama, fanned one of the two UA hitters in his debut.
The series with USM will be available on Conference USA TV along with live stat links on JSUGamecockSports.com.
