CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — The Jax State softball team tallied its eighth straight win and eighteenth and final non-conference victory of the season on Wednesday night, defeating the Chattanooga Mocs 9-2 at Frost Stadium. The Gamecocks finished the non-conference slate with a record of 18-10.

Jax State (37-12, 19-2 CUSA) scored all nine of its runs across the first two innings of play, along with holding Chattanooga to its only two scores in the second inning to set up a scoreless final five innings of action. As a unit, the Gamecocks rattled off 10 hits with eight different batters, compared to six hits from the Mocs.

Head coach Julie Boland's squad was off and running from first pitch, as junior Emma Elrod and senior Morgan Nowakowski began the game with back-to-back doubles, along with a single from Amber Reed to eventually set up a bases loaded walk to score the second run of the game.

Nowakowski's double was her 20^th of the season and Reed's single brought her reached-base streak to 26 games. Between the two of them, the pair combined for three hits and four runs scored throughout the night.

The hot bats continued in the second frame as well, with Jax State's first four batters of the inning reaching base safely, which was later followed by a three-run home run by senior Makalyn Kyser to break the game open with an 8-0 lead. Kyser's home run was her fourth in the last four games, along with her 16^th RBI across the span as well.

Chattanooga was able to retaliate in the bottom half of the second with back-to-back RBI ground balls for two runs, but it was all that the Mocs could manage for the rest of the night. Additionally, the Gamecocks were able to hold Chattanooga to just one hit from the third inning until the seventh.

Mikayla Deville and Nowakowski led the team with two hits each, including the RBI double from Nowakowski in the first inning. Kyser tallied four RBIs for herself against the Mocs, along with extending her reached-base streak to seven games.

Senior pitcher Jaliyah Holmes claimed the win in the circle for the Gamecocks, pitching the first three innings of action. Holmes allowed two runs off three hits and two walks, along with tallying a strikeout. Freshman Yulai Woodruff came in relief in the fourth frame, pitching four innings while allowing no runs off three hits, with two strikeouts.

Jax State returns to Jana McGinnis Field this weekend for a three-game conference series, beginning on Friday night against the Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders at 6 p.m.