JACKSONVILLE – The Jacksonville State softball team tossed its fourth-straight shutout and the third of the weekend on Sunday to cap a three-game ASUN Conference sweep of Bellarmine on Senior Day.
The Gamecocks (30-19, 13-8 ASUN) got over five innings of shutout work from starter
Kat Carter and another inning-plus from senior
Lexi Androlevich to hand the Knights (10-38, 1-20 ASUN) a 6-0 defeat and cap the series sweep at University Field.
The three shutouts mark the second time that JSU has shut out an opponent in a series after keeping Eastern Kentucky off of the scoreboard on April 9-10, a feat that hadn't happened since 2016. After a 4-0 win over Alabama State on Tuesday, the Gamecocks have recorded shutouts in four consecutive games since 2003, when they had five in a row from March 20-24.
The sweep also secured a spot in the ASUN Championship for the Gamecocks. The eight-team tournament will take the top three teams in each division and the two remaining teams with the best ASUN record, and JSU is assured of being one of the top three teams in the West Division after the weekend with Bellarmine.
It also sets up a huge series at Central Arkansas that will have the West Division on the line. The Gamecocks trail the Bears (30-18, 14-7 ASUN) by just one game with a three-game series scheduled in Conway, Ark., beginning Friday. The winner of the series will secure at least a share of the division title.
Carter (16-9) was in control again on Sunday, allowing one hit and striking out five in 5 and 2/3 innings of work. The Spring Hill, Tenn., native needed just 65 pitches to record the 17 outs, one day after facing the minimum in a complete-game one-hitter.
Her gem capped a weekend that saw her, fellow freshman
Sarah Currie and Androlevich combine to hold the Knights to just three hits in 19 innings of work. The trio struck out a combined 16 batters and allowed the Bellarmine offense to hit just .051 as a unit.
Carter didn't need much offensive support on Sunday but she got plenty. The Gamecocks loaded the bases on three-straight singles from
Brantly Bonds,
Savannah Sudduth and
Karsen Mosley in the second and got a run when Bonds scored on a wild pitch from Claire Lehmkuhler.
Addie Robinson added a second run in the third, when she singled in Cam McLemore after her leadoff double bounced over the wall in left center. Bobbitt scored the third run of the game in the fourth, coming home on a Mosley single after leading off the frame with a single.
Sudduth singled in pinch runner
Chaney Phillips in the fifth, and the Gamecocks put the final two runs on the board in the sixth when Mosley tripled in
Sidney Wagnon and scored on a Phillips single.
Lehmkuler (5-17) suffered the loss after allowing six runs, four earned, on 11 hits in six innings in the circle. She walked four and struck out one.
The series at Central Arkansas begins on Friday, with a doubleheader at 4 p.m. CT and will wrap up at 1 p.m. on Saturday. The ASUN Tournament will begin May 10 in Jacksonville, Fla.
