NASHVILLE – The Jacksonville State softball team won the first game before falling in the nightcap of a doubleheader split at Lipscomb in ASUN West Division play at Draper Diamond on Friday night.
 
The Gamecocks got a 3-for-3 effort from Cam McLemore and a complete game from Kat Carter in a 4-1 win to start the three-game series with the Bisons before a six-run sixth lifted Lipscomb to an 8-4 win in the second game. The Gamecocks (24-16, 8-6 ASUN) fall into a tie for second in the West Division with North Alabama, while the Bisons (16-24, 6-8 ASUN) remain in fourth.
 
McLemore's three-hit game in the opener included a double, a run scored and an RBI, while the junior from Saraland, Ala., also drew one walk. She got nearly half of her team's seven total hits and doubled in fellow Saraland native Karsen Mosley in the fourth to plate JSU's final run of the game.
 
Carter (13-8) needed just 96 pitches in her 17^th shutout in 21 starts as a true freshman. The Spring Hill, Tenn., native limited Lipscomb to one run on just five hits in seven frames that also saw her strike out five and not issue a walk.
 
She got a two-run lead in the top of the first inning, when Addie Robinson drove a two-run single down the right field line that plated Mosley and Megan Fortner. The Gamecocks wouldn't trail again. 
 
Lipscomb scored its lone run in the home half of the first on Kamrie Rich's RBI single, one of two hits in the inning. The Bisons got just three singles the rest of the game.
 
An error buy the Bisons on a Brantly Bonds grounder in the third allowed a run to score and make it 3-1, while McLemore's fourth-inning double put the deciding 4-1 score on the board.
 
Makayla Veneziale (2-6) suffered the loss for Lipscomb after surrendering four runs on seven hits and five walks in seven innings in the circle. She recorded four strike outs and threw 161 pitches.
 
Mosley added two hits and scored two runs in the win.
 
In the second game of the day, the Gamecocks held a slight edge for most of the game but couldn't put it away. They scored the game's first run in the second on Abbi Perkins' RBI single to left, but Lipscomb tied it in the third on a solo homer from Elise Shewmaker.
 
JSU answered quickly, scoring two in the fourth after two Lipscomb errors after a Bonds base hit allowed Fortner and Robinson to score and make it a 3-2 JSU lead.
 
Lipscomb cut the deficit to one with a run in the fourth, but JSU got it right back with a bases loaded walk to Robinson in the top of the fifth.
 
Lipscomb scored six runs on five hits and one error in the bottom of the sixth to take the lead and then take control of the game. A Shewmaker two-run single and a two-run triple from Maci Cunconan were the big blows in the frame.
 
Kate Peters (7-7) earned the win for Lipscomb after allowing four unearned runs on nine hits and a pair of walks in her seven frames of work. JSU Freshman Sarah Currie (9-5) was charged with the loss after giving up five runs on 10 hits in 5 and 1/3 innings. Carter recorded the final two outs for JSU but surrendered three unearned runs on three hits.
 
Robinson led JSU at the plate in the second game with a 2-for-2 effort, while Bonds and Perkins each recorded two hits in three at bats in the game.
 
The Gamecocks and Bisons will wrap up the three-game series on Saturday with a single game beginning at 1 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+.