CONWAY, Ark. – The Jacksonville State softball team dropped the final game of the regular season on Saturday at Central Arkansas and will be the No. 5 seed in next week's ASUN Conference Championship.
 
The Gamecocks (30-22, 13-11 ASUN) fell 2-1 to the West Division champion Bears (33-18, 17-7 ASUN) to wrap up the three-game series at Farris Field. JSU will now travel to Jacksonville, Fla., where it will take on No. 8 seed Lipscomb on Tuesday at 3 p.m. ET in a single-elimination play-in game to start the ASUN Tournament. The game will be played at Jacksonville University's Debbie & Fred Pruitt Complex. The winner will advance to the six-team, double-elimination bracket and will open against No. 4 North Alabama at 3 p.m. ET on Wednesday.
 
In Saturday's season finale, the Gamecocks got another solid start from freshman starter Kat Carter but couldn't get enough offense to pull off a win against the Bears. Carter, a native of Spring Hill, Tenn., held UCA to two runs on six hits and struck out five in six innings of work but fell to 16-11 with the loss.
 
Jordan Johnson kept the Gamecocks' bats at bay, limiting JSU to a run on five hits in 5 and 2/3 innings of work. She also struck out five to improve to 13-11 on the season. Kayla Beaver recorded the final four outs of the game to earn her third save of the season.
 
UCA scored in the home half of the first on a Mary Brown single that drove in Jenna Wildeman after her leadoff single started the inning. That 1-0 lead held until the third, when Karsen Mosley singled in Savannah Sudduth after she led off with a walk and stole second.
 
The two remained tied until the fifth, when Jaylee Engelkes' two-out single scored Tremere Harris and gave the Bears a 2-1 advantage. The Gamecocks got runners on and moved them into scoring position in each of the final two innings, but they couldn't push the tying run across.
 
Five players scattered JSU's five singles in the game, while Reagan Sperling had two of UCA's six hits to lead the way.
 
The Gamecocks will look to bounce back on Tuesday in the win-or-go-home matchup with Lipscomb. JSU took two games from the Bison in their three-game series in Nashville on April 15-16. All games in the ASUN Tournament will be aired on ESPN+.