JACKSONVILLE – The Jacksonville State softball team capped a perfect weekend in its JSU Invitational on Friday, when the Gamecocks swept the final day with wins over Austin Peay and Samford.
After defeating the same two teams on Thursday, the Gamecocks (14-8) kept to their winning ways with a walk-off, 3-2 win over the Governors in the first game and then a 5-1 win over the Bulldogs in the finale.
Sophomore
Lindsey Richardson delivered the game winner in the bottom of the seventh in the opener, while freshman
Sarah Currie tossed a gem to carry the Gamecocks in the finale.
The sweep finished off a solid weekend for the Gamecocks, who posted a 4-0 record, hit .297 as a team and outscored their opposition, 19-6.
Karsen Mosley was 5-for-9 on the weekend to lead an offense that saw eight different players drive in at least one run.
In the first game, freshman pitcher
Kat Carter labored through her ninth complete game in 11 starts this season, but she limited the damage by the Govs. The Spring Hill, Tenn., native scattered 10 hits and didn't issue a strike out but allowed just two runs to cross and improved to 7-4 on the season.
The Gamecocks got six hits but made theirs count and kept answering when the Govs tried to take control. After an RBI double from Brooke Pfefferle gave APSU a 1-0 lead in the first, JSU tied it in the second on
Brantly Bonds' RBI grounder.
Peay got the lead back in the top of the fifth on a Pfefferle sac fly, but the lead didn't last long.
Sidney Wagnon laced a two-out single into right that scored
Lauren Hunt and tied the game again, this time at 2-2.
That score held until the seventh, when
Chaney Phillips led off the home half with a single to right. She then moved to second on a
Keeli Bobbitt sac bunt and to third on another Wagnon single and scored the game winner when Richardson bounced a 2-2 pitch into center field.
Jordan Benefiel (6-4) was tagged with the loss after surrendering three runs on six hits in 6 and 1/3 innings in the circle. She struck out four and walked a pair in losing to Carter.
Wagnon's two hits led JSU at the plate in the game.
In the final game of the weekend, JSU used big swings to take control on offense, while Currie was dealing in the mound.
While the freshman pitcher from Lawrenceville, Ga., didn't allow a hit until the fourth inning and held the Bulldogs to one hit until the seventh, JSU scored all five runs on extra-base hits.
Freshman
Hannah Buffington drove in the first in the home half of the second, when her double to left center plated Mosley and gave Currie an early 1-0 lead. Bonds immediately added to the lead with her team-leading fourth home run of the season, a two-run blast to left center that also drove in Buffington and made it a 3-0 JSU lead.
Megan Fortner stretched the lead to 5-0 in the third with a line drive homer over the wall in right center, an opposite-field shot for the junior that was her third of the season and second of the weekend. It also extended her team-best hitting streak to 12 games.
The Bulldogs got a run in the seventh on a sac fly but couldn't mount a threat against Currie, who allowed one run on two hits in her sixth complete game in six starts. She struck out three and walked two to improve to 5-1 on the season.
The Gamecocks will host a pair of non-conference games during the week before opening ASUN Conference play on the weekend. JSU will welcome Colgate to University Field at 5 p.m. on Wednesday before facing Southeastern Louisiana on Thursday at 4 p.m. The weekend will see them travel to Kennesaw State for a Saturday doubleheader and a Sunday single game in Kennesaw, Ga.
