HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Jacksonville State picked up a pair of wins on Friday to open the Golden Eagle Invite on the campus of Southern Mississippi.
The Gamecocks (5-1) rallied late to take down Tulsa, 1-0, in the first contest of the afternoon, before holding on to a 4-3 victory over former Ohio Valley Conference foe, Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, in the second matchup of the day.
Against the Golden Hurricane (2-5), JSU made couldn't register a hit through the first five innings. Gamecocks still found their way on the base paths bu way of walks or errors, but Tulsa's Kylee Nash carried a no-hitting into the sixth until freshman
Ashley Phillips' one-out double in the bottom of the sixth. Phillips advanced to third on a groundout by
Morgan Nowakowski, and made her way home for the go-ahead run on a two-out hit off the bat of
Abbi Perkins.
JSU's
Kat Carter, who improved to 2-0 on the season, equally matched Nash frame-for-frame from the circle. The Spring Hill, Tenn., native, struck out four and scattered four hits in her 103-pitch shutout. After keeping the American Athletic Conference's Golden Hurricane in check for six innings, Carter closed out the win in the tip of the seventh. Tulsa threatened with the tying run at third and go-ahead run at second, before a fly out to left ended things for the third and final out.
Following Carter's gem, fellow sophomore pitcher
Sarah Currie earned her second win of the season in the second game of the day, helping the Gamecocks to a 4-3 win over SIUE.
Brantly Bonds drove in a pair of runs to push JSU ahead 1-0 and later 3-1 in during a 2-run fifth that built a 4-1 advantage.
The Cougars closed the gap with a run in the home half of the fifth to pull within one, and another in the seventh as the Gamecocks had to strand to the potential tying run at third for the second time on Friday.
JSU will return to the field on Saturday, opening with a rematch against SIUE at 5 p.m., followed by a matchup with Alcorn State.
