JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Jacksonville State did all of its damage in the sixth inning with all eight runs in the inning and held off a North Florida rally to win the ASUN series opener, 8-6, on Thursday night at Harmon Stadium on the UNF campus.

The Gamecocks (15-14) notched their eighth conference win (8-2) and moved to 4-0 in ASUN series openers this season and will look to claim their third conference series in Friday's 5:05 CT contest with the Ospreys. UNG dropped to 16-14 overall and 4-6 in league action.

UNF starter Peter Holden was cruising through five innings with one Jax State hit and just under 50 pitches entering the sixth inning. Freshman Caleb Johnson smashed the first pitch of the frame to left field to start an inning that saw Jax State send 13 batters to the plate and collecting six of the eight hits on the night in that one inning. After Johnson's single, freshman Bear Madliak drilled his second hit of the game back up the middle ahead of junior Javon Hernandez' walk to load the bases. Junior Mason Maners slapped a two-run, two-RBI single to right field to put the Gamecocks on the scoreboard.

Holden's second walk of the inning to senior T.J. Reeves loaded the bases again to bring sophomore Brennen Norton to the plate and he delivered two more runs with a single back up the middle. Jax State chased Holden with a one-out RBI single from Derrick Jackson, Jr. Jax State took advantage of back-to-back hit-by-pitches to load the bases and extend the inning with Madliak getting plunked for an RBI. Hernandez rounded out the scoring in the inning with a single. The Danbury, Connecticut native continues to be one of the top hitters against ASUN foes with another multi-hit performance. He added a double to start the JSU ninth inning. Through 10 ASUN games, Hernandez is hitting .585 in the league.

The eight-run sixth inning was the second-most by the Gamecocks this season as they plated nine runs in one frame against Queens to start ASUN play. Jax State has seven innings this season of five-plus runs in the inning.

The Gamecocks' big inning erased a 3-0 lead by the Ospreys as they scored three two-out runs in the third inning off of JSU's AJ Causey. Causey put together six strong innings with three strikeouts and kept his club in the game until the offense came to light.

UNF responded to Jax State's eight-run inning with a run in the home half of the sixth. Junior Jake Peppers put together 2.2 innings of work and looked to have closed out the inning, but the Ospreys battled with two outs in the inning. After two runs already in, UNF loaded the bases before sophomore Austin Cornelius tossed three pitches for a strikeout to end the game and record his first career save.

Friday's contest will be streamed on UNF's SWOOPLife Live and carried on the Gamecock Sports Network. The two programs also announced a game time change for the series finale on Saturday due to impending weather approaching the area. Jax State and UNF will start the final game of the weekend at 10:05 CT.