JACKSONVILLE – A spot start on the mound for senior
Trey Fortner and the middle of the Jacksonville State lineup lifted the Gamecocks to an 8-1 win over in-state rival North Alabama on Saturday at Rudy Abbott Field at Jim Case Stadium.
The win locks in Jax State's fourth ASUN series win of the season and in line for its third league weekend sweep of the season. The Gamecocks moved to 20-21 on the season and 13-7 in league games. The Lions dropped to 9-32 overall and 3-17 in the ASUN. Sunday's finale will have a Truist Park atmosphere with Blooper, the Atlanta Braves mascot and the organization's organist at Truist Park, Matthew Kaminski will be on hand for the 1 p.m. contest.
Tickets are available online at JSUGamecockSports.com. A special general admission ticket discount promotion using the code
BASEBALL23 is available online. All Jax State students and fans 18 years old and younger are admitted free.
Fortner, making his second start of the week, was impressive for the second time in as many appearances. On Tuesday against UAB, the Gloucester, Virginia native tossed four innings and allowed just a pair of Blazer hits. Against UNA, he was just as sharp with five complete innings and scattered three hits and the Lions' unearned run in the third. He recorded a pair of strikeouts and walked one in a winning effort with his first win of the season. Junior
Sam Maynard was impressive out of the bullpen with the final four innings. After a leadoff single in the sixth and a walk, Maynard retired the next 12 Lions. He posted his first save of the season after being inserted on the mound with a 4-1 lead.
Jax State's two-through-five spots in the order combined for nine of the 12 hits off the Lions. Junior
Javon Hernandez kept pace with the league's top hitters with three more hits on Saturday for his 20th multi-hit game of the season and 11th game with three hits. In the 20 ASUN games, Hernandez has 15-of-those-20 multi-hit games against league foes and his ninth three-hit ASUN contest. He enters Sunday's game with 71 hits. Junior
Mason Maners, senior
T.J. Reeves and junior
Derrick Jackson, Jr. had two hits each in the win. Jackson, who has four hits on the weekend, tallied a pair of RBI. Freshman
Caleb Johnson collected two hits to extend innings, including the first run of the game with an RBI single to right field.
After UNA evened the contest at 1-1 in the third inning, sophomore
Brennen Norton registered his third sacrifice fly of the weekend in JSU's half of the third. Jax State broke open a three-run game with four runs in the seventh. The big inning was aided by three Lion miscues on the infield.
Sunday's game will be available on ESPN+ and carried on the Gamecock Sports Network.
