HATTIESBURG, Miss. – The Jacksonville State baseball team dropped a 5-1 decision to Southern Mississippi on Saturday afternoon at Pete Taylor Park in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
The Golden Eagles, who claimed the series with the win broke a 1-1 contest with single runs in the fifth and sixth and added a pair of insurance runs in the eighth to preserve the win. USM improved to 5-1 on the season, while JSU's record fell to 0-6. The two clubs will put a wrap on the second weekend of the season with a 1 p.m. series finale. The game will be streamed on C-USA.tv along with live audio and live stat links provided on JSUGamecockSports.com.
USM took the first lead of the afternoon with a solo home run by Carson Paetow to start the third inning. The home run was the first of two runs USM posted on Jax State starter,
Tanner Jones. Jones, making his second career start, was much crisper on the mound Saturday after a tough debut a week ago against Kentucky. USM regain the lead after a one-out walk produced the go-ahead run in the sixth. USM's Will McGillis lifted a sacrifice fly to push the run home. McGillis added anther RBI USM's two-run eighth inning.
Jones finished the day with 4.2 innings of work, touched for six hits and struck out a pair of Golden Eagles. Senior
Trey Fortner covered the rest of the contest on the mound.
The Gamecocks answered USM's home run in the third inning with an equalizing run in the fourth inning. Senior
Alex Strachan singled to left to open the inning and moved to second on freshman
Brennen Norton's ground out. Junior
T.J. Reeves, Jax State's leading RBI producer this season, delivered an RBI single to right field.
The Gamecocks threated for their first lead of the day in the sixth with junior
Carson Crowe going the other way with a leadoff double to left field and moved to third on a ground ball out, but USM got out of the am after it went to the bullpen. USM starter Hunter Riggins tossed five complete innings to earn the win. JSU had all five of its hits off him as Landon Harper shut down the Gamecock bats over the final four innings.
Senior
Isaac Alexander and sophomore
Derrick Jackson, Jr. had hits on the day.
JSU has tapped sophomore
Camden Lovrich as the Sunday starter, while USM will send Hursten Waldrep to the mound.