JACKSONVILLE – Jax State baseball clinched a share of its first conference title since 2019 in a walk-off victory over Kennesaw State on Sunday afternoon at Jim Case Stadium.
Jax State hit the 40 win mark for the first time since 1995 and the sixth time in school history, improving to 40-11 after the victory, as well as 22-5 in Conference USA play. Kennesaw State fell to 24-23 and 12-15 in league play after the loss.
Skyler Hutto earned his fourth win of the season as the active pitcher for Jax State when the walk-off happened. Daniel Powell, who took the win against Jax State on Friday night, took the loss to fall to 6-3 this season.
The Owls jumped ahead of the Gamecocks early with a run in the top of the third inning, plating the run with a sacrifice bunt to go up 1-0.
Jax State responded in the bottom of the sixth inning with a sac bunt of its own to even up the score, with
Matthew Cash laying down a bunt to bring
Brady Thomas home for the equalizer.
The Gamecocks took a late lead in the bottom of the eighth inning by plating two runs to take a 3-1 lead.
Luke Williams reached on a fielder's choice sacrifice bunt to bring
Trey Majette home, then an RBI-groundout by
Trey King brought M. Cash home to take the two-run advantage.
Down to their last out, the Owls scored two two-out runs to tie the game in the ninth inning, scoring two unearned runs from an RBI-double and an RBI-single to knot the game up at 3-3 late.
To open the bottom of the ninth inning, Thomas led off with a double that slammed against the wall in right-center field.
Cooper Blauser drove him to third base with a sac bunt, and a sacrifice line out by Majette brought Thomas home for the game-winner. After an appeal and a review, the call was confirmed as safe, securing win No. 40 for Jax State.
Steven Cash turned in another strong start for Jax State, earning a quality start with 6.1 innings of work, giving up only two hits and one unearned run with five strikeouts.
All three starting pitchers this weekend for Jax State turned in quality starts, the second time this season that has happened.
Even with claiming a share of the regular season title, the Gamecocks have a chance to secure the outright regular season title and No. 1 seed in the tournament next week at Dallas Baptist. The Gamecocks' magic number is one, meaning the Gamecocks need one more conference win or one more conference loss by Liberty to secure the outright title.
Jax State will close the home slate on Tuesday night by hosting Auburn. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m.
