JACKSONVILLE — The Jax State baseball team prepares for five games in the next six days, starting with two midweek games against Samford and Alabama A&M. The game against Samford will take place at 3 p.m. on Tuesday at Jim Case Stadium, while the game against Alabama A&M will take place on Sunday in Madison at Toyota Field, home of the Rocket City Trash Pandas.
Jax State rolls into the week with an overall record of 17-3 and a conference record of 3-0, winners of seven-straight contests. Last time out, the Gamecocks swept Sam Houston on the road to open up Conference USA play. It was the first time the Gamecocks won a conference-opening game as members of CUSA, and the first conference-opening sweep by the Gamecocks since 2023, when the team swept Queens in its final year as a member of the ASUN.
Samford is 7-11 through the season and have not started conference play in the SoCon yet. The Bulldogs fell in a weekend series to the Little Rock Trojans, taking game one on Friday but falling in the Saturday and Sunday games to drop the series.
Alabama A&M is 7-14 in the year, opening SWAC play with a series win over Alcorn State over the weekend. The Bulldogs won the Friday and Sunday games to claim the series.
Jax State is beginning to appear in a few rankings throughout the collegiate baseball media space. Most notably, the Gamecocks are receiving votes in the USA Today Coaches Poll, earning five points and tying for the unofficial 36th spot with South Florida. The Gamecocks are also receiving votes in the National College Baseball Writer's Association (NCBWA) poll and are ranked 17th in the 64Analytics poll. In PEARating's NET ratings, Jax State is fifth among mid-majors, and in 11.7's Mid-Major Power Rankings, Jax State has moved up to 14th.
Additionally, the team has checked in at No. 10 in 643Chart's DSR Mid-Major Top 25. DSR has been approved as an additional resource for the D1 baseball committee to use in the tournament selection process, and is officially supported by the ABCA.
Jax State has turned the fourth-most double plays in Division I at 21. This puts the team alone in sixth nationally, as two teams tie at second with 23 (Tarleton State and Vanderbilt), and two teams tie at fourth with 22 (Georgia State and La Salle). Butler (4-16) leads the nation wth 26 double plays turned.
Head Coach Steve Bieser needs only two more victories to achieve 400 victories in his coaching career. After racking up 138 wins at SEMO, Bieser earned 188 victories at Mizzou prior to coming to Jax State, arriving in Jacksonville with 326 total wins. As of March 16, he has earned 72 wins with the Gamecocks for a total of 398 wins.
The Gamecocks will start RHP Brady Thomas for the second-consecutive Tuesday. The two-way player carries a record of 2-0 and an ERA of 1.69. Samford will start RHP Noah Berry on Tuesday. Neither Jax State nor Alabama A&M have announced starters for Wednesday.
Action begins on Tuesday at 3 p.m. against Samford. Fans can follow along via ESPN+, radio with Mike Parris, or live stats.
