HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Southern Mississippi rallied with three runs in the final two innings to claim the series opener over Jacksonville State, 4-3, on Friday night at Pete Taylor Park.
USM's Slade Wilks delivered a walk-off single to left field to give the home squad the win. JSU will look to bounce-back on Saturday in the middle game the three-game weekend series between the two clubs. First pitch is set for 2 p.m. The game will be streamed on C-USA.tv, a subscription-based streaming platform, along with a link at JSUGamecockSPorts.com to the USM radio broadcast. Live stats will also be available at JSUGamecockSports.com.
Trialing 3-1 through seven innings, the Golden Eagles scored two runs in the eighth on Will McGillis' triple to right field with one down in the inning. JSU's
Dylan Hathcock induced a fly ball to
Carson Crowe in right field and Crowe threw McGillis out at the plate to end the inning.
The Gamecocks scores all three runs in the fifth inning. Freshman
Brennen Norton, who has a hit in the first five games of his Jax State career, started a string of three consecutive hits off USM starter Ben Etheridge. Senior
Tanner Snow singles to left before junior
T.J. Reeves roped an RBI double just inside the third base line. Junior
Brooks Bryan added to JSU's lead with a sacrifice fly to deep centerfield. JSU put on the squeeze play with senior
Isaac Alexander laying down the bunt for the RBI.
The JSU offense was limited to one hit over the last four innings off of USM reliever Tyler Stuart. Bryan started the eighth with a single off od Stuart for the lone hit off him.
JSU had another productive outing from starter
Reid Fagerstrom. The sophomore kept USM off balanced for the first four innings before getting into trouble in the fifth. Fagerstrom scattered three USM hits and turned in seven strikeouts for the second consecutive start. Junior
Isaiah Magwood was inserted into a tough bases-loaded situation and held USM to just one run in the inning.
Wilks' game-winning hit gave him a multi-hit night, which was the only player in the contest to get multiple hits.
Jax State will send freshman
Tanner Jones to the mound on Saturday for his second career start, while USM will counter with Hunter Riggins.
