DECATUR, Ga. – The Jacksonville State softball team dropped a pair of games at Georgia State to open the I-75 Tournament on Saturday at the Bob Heck Softball Complex.
The Panthers got a three-run fifth to left themselves to a 5-3 win in the opener and then scored five in the first inning of an 8-3 win in the second game. The Gamecocks fell to 6-6 on the young 2022 season.
The Gamecocks scored in the top of the first in both games, but they couldn't hold off the Panthers in the home half of the first in either matchup. In the first game of the day, the Gamecocks got a run when
Abbi Perkins scored on an RBI single from
Brantly Bonds to make it a 1-0 JSU lead.
The Panthers answered with two in the bottom of the inning on Sophie Mooney's two-out, two-run double to left center and claimed an early 2-1 lead. A Panther error in the top of the fourth allowed
Karsen Mosley to score and tie the game, but a three-run homer from Bailee Richardson gave GSU a 5-2 lead in the fifth.
The Gamecocks added a run in the seventh on
Megan Fortner's two-out double and also brought the tying run to the plate, but they couldn't push another one across.
Emily Hodnett started the game for GSU and allowed two runs on five hits in four innings in the circle, while Emily Buck (2-3) won the game in relief after allowing one unearned run on two hits in her three frames.
Kat Carter (3-3) suffered the loss for JSU after giving up five runs on seven hits in four innings of work.
Sarah Currie tossed two scoreless innings in relief. Mosley and
Savannah Sudduth each had two of the Gamecocks' seven hits at the plate.
In the final game of the day, Perkins and Fortner delivered back-to-back RBI doubles that put the Gamecocks up 2-0, but GSU answered with five on a pair of homers in the home half of the inning and never looked back.
Richardson hit the first, a two-run shot that started the big inning, and Carolyn Deady made it a 5-2 game with her three-run blast.
Chaney Phillips added JSU's other run on a third-inning sac fly, while the Panthers tacked a run on in each the second, fourth and fifth innings.
Fortner doubled twice in her three plate appearances, while
Keeli Bobbitt hat a pair of hits in the loss.
Lexi Androlevich (2-2) suffered the loss after giving up five runs on four hits while recording two outs in the first. Currie tossed the final 5 and 1/3 innings, giving up three runs on five hits.
Julia Allen gave up two runs on six hits in the first inning for GSU, and Hallie Adams held the Gamecocks to a run on four hits in six innings of relief work to earn the win.
The Gamecocks will wrap up the weekend in Atlanta on Sunday with a 4 p.m. ET game at Georgia Tech that will be televised on ACC Network+.
