JACKSONVILLE – Like some many others already this season, Jax State ran into the ASUN's juggernaut on Saturday night dropping back-to-back games to the nationally-ranked Bears of Central Arkansas.
  
JSU, now 27-18 and 13-7 in league play following the 5-2 and 8-2 setbacks, used three home runs to plate their four runs for the evening. Central Arkansas meanwhile, piled up 22 hits between the two contests and took advantage of four Gamecock errors to grab the lead each game.
  
Under freshman Jaliyah Holmes, game one was scoreless through four innings before trouble arose in the fifth. A one-out, would-be sacrifice bunt from UCA reached safely on a wild throw to first allowing the first run of the night to score followed by four more in the same frame.
  
Redshirt-freshman Morgan Nowakowski finally cracked UCA starter Jordan Johnson in the sixth with her second home run of the season. Senior Brantly Bonds followed two batters later with a solo shot of her own to make it 5-2, which signaled the end of Johnson's night. The Gamecocks rought the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the seventh against Kayla Beaver, but a hard shot off the bat of Linley Tubbs was swiped out of the air in center field for the final out.
 
Beaver started and went the distance in game two for the Bears from the circle. She retired 12-straight at one point and JSU couldn't string together long innings at the plate to build momentum. AbbI Perkins' put the Gamecocks ahead, 2-0, on a two-run home run in the second, but the Bears capitalized on another key JSU error to open a four-run fourth inning and regain control. The Bears followed with a three-spot in the fifth and held the 8-2 margin the rest of the way.
  
The two teams square off in the series finale at 1 p.m. Sunday afternoon in JSU's Senior Day game from Jana McGinnis Field.