JACKSONVILLE – Senior T.J. Reeves and sophomore AJ Causey combined for eight RBI on Saturday to lead Jacksonville State to a 13-8 series-evening win over Southern Illinois on Rudy Abbott Field at Jim Case Stadium.

Reeves and Causey, both 2023 Preseason All-ASUN selections, collected six of Jax State's 12 total hits, matching a season-best for the Gamecocks, who snapped a four-game losing skid with Saturday's win. The rubber game of the weekend is set for 1 p.m. The match up will be streamed on ESPN+ and carried on the Gamecock Sports Network. Tickets are available online at JSUGamecockSports.com.

Jax State erased a 4-2 deficit with a run in the fifth inning and the biggest run-producing inning of the season so far in the sixth with six runs on two big hits in the inning. Causey, in the starting lineup for the first time this season and playing first base, kick-started the inning with his first career home run as a Gamecock. He blasted a solo home run to left field to tie the game at 4-4. After a walk by freshman Will Fincher and a single from senior Brooks Bryan, freshman Michael Dallas had an RBI single, followed by a bunt single by junior Javon Hernandez. Junior Mason Maners, who reached base four times to extend his on-base streak to 18 games dating back to the last 12 games of the 2022 season, recorded an RBI on a sacrifice fly. Maners was plunked three times, which matches former Gamecock Coty Blanchard, who was hit by pitch three times in 2013 against Murray State.

Reeves turned in a three-run home run to the deepest part of Jim Case Stadium pushing Jax State out to a 9-4 lead. His second home run of the season followed a pair of singles in his first two at bats, including an RBI single in the third to give the Gamecocks a short-lived 2-1 lead.

SIU scored single runs in the first and fourth and took the two-run lead in the fifth. The Salukis clawed back into the game with a four-run eighth inning before sophomore Reid Fagerstrom finished the frame and stranding two Salukis on the base paths.

The Gamecocks, looking for insurance runs in the eighth, loaded the bases with one out with Causey coming to the plate. He turned in a bases-clearing double to put the game away. Causey was a triple away from hitting for the cycle. Senior Jarrett Eaton added an RBI two-out single in the inning. Bryan was the third Gamecock to have multiple hits on the day.

JSU's Tanner Jones tossed the first four innings, scattering five hits and carding three strikeouts. Junior Jake Peppers kept SIU quiet until the four-run eighth and secured his second win on the season. Fagerstrom collected his second save of the season.

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