JACKSONVILLE — Jax State claimed its fifth-straight weekend series with a 6-2 victory over Western Kentucky on Saturday afternoon at Rudy Abbott Field at Jim Case Stadium.

Jax State is the first CUSA team to hit the 20-win mark, owning a record of 20-4 and 5-0 in league play. WKU falls to 13-10 and 3-2 in CUSA play.

Maddox McDougall earned the win, improving to 2-0 on the season. McDougall came in during the fourth inning and pitched 3.2 innings of long relief, giving up the only two runs of the game byt fanning four. WKU's Aaron Robertson took his first loss of the season to fall to 1-1.

The Gamecocks plated the first six runs of the day before WKU answered, starting in the bottom of the third inning, where Caleb Johnson's RBI-single plated Ace Williamson for the first run of the game. Jaxon Pate then scored on a wild pitch. The frame ended after a two-out, two-run homer from Grayson Ashe, a 408-foot shot that left the bat at 103 miles per hour.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, Cooper Blauser reached on a fielder's choice to the WKU shortstop. The shortstop double-clutched the ball and could not make a play, allowing Williamson to score his second run of the day and stretch the lead to 5-0.

Blauser scored Williamson again in the bottom of the seventh inning, bringing him home on a sac fly to make it 6-0.

The Hilltoppers took to the board in the top of the eighth inning, with a two-run homer of its own, cutting the lead to 6-2. Jackson Sleeper was brought in and retired three of the next four to get out of the inning.

All three outs in the top of the ninth were swinging strikeouts, one to Sleeper and two to Skyler Hutto to finish off the Hilltoppers in game two.

Jax State now leads the overall series against WKU 7-5. The Gamecocks look to sweep its second conference foe in as many weeks on Sunday, with first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m. Steven Cash will start on the mound for Jax State.