HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Jacksonville State dropped the final game of the Golden Eagle Invite on Sunday afternoon to tournament host Southern Mississippi, 4-1, despite out-hitting its opponent.
 
The Gamecocks (6-3) put runners in scoring position in each of the first two innings, but failed to scratch across a run until Lindsey Richardson's RBI single in the third scored Emma Jones. Richardson and Abbi Perkins each had 2-for-3 days at the plate for four of Jax State's six hits.
 
Meanwhile, USM jumped on the board early with a pair in the home half of the first on a two-run shot off Gamecock starter Sarah Currie. The Golden Eagles (8-1) added two more in the bottom of the third after Richardson's RBI cut the deficit to one.
 
Following Currie's start, freshman Jordan Eslinger entered to pitch innings three and four, before the Gamecocks turned it over to freshman Jaliyah Holmes for the final two frames. Holmes struck out three of her seven batters faced to end USM's scoring, but the Gamecocks equally struggled down the stretch on the offensive side with five strikeouts in the final three innings.
 
While stranding runners in scoring position in each of the first four innings, JSU left seven on base overall Sunday afternoon. On the flip side, JSU had a clean day in the field without any errors. Unfortunately, where JSU failed to find timely hits of their own, USM scored four runs early on just two separate hits to build a lead large enough to hold the rest of the way.
 
The Gamecocks heads to Western Kentucky next weekend for five scheduled games against WKU, Central Michigan and Illinois State.