Box Score HATTIESBURG, Miss.—All nine starters in the batting order had a hit to push Jax State to the Hattiesburg Regional semifinal with a 15-7 win over second-seeded Virginia Friday night.
 
The Gamecocks posted 17 hits and scored in six of the nine innings and will face Little Rock at 8 p.m. Central on Saturday with the winner advancing to the final of the four-team, double-elimination tournament.
 
The 15 runs scored were the most in program history in a regional since plating nine against Clemson in 2019 to advance to the final at Ole Miss. That number was also the second-most allowed by Virginia in a tournament game and the most since 2006.
 
"I'm really proud of our group and the way they came out and were ready to play tonight," said coach Steve Bieser. "That's a very good club over there and one of the most offensive teams we faced all season long and it took a lot of fight from us."
 
The Gamecocks got a two-out, two-run homer from Cooper Blauser, his fifth of the season over the right-center wall that traveled 397 feet to give Jax State the first runs of the game in the top of the second after going in order against starting pitcher Henry Zatkowski.
 
In the third, Jax State looked to some small ball to generate two more runs and took advantage of a pair of Virginia errors in the third. After a Trey King bunt yielded an error and moved Jaxon Pate to third, who led off the inning with a single to second, Grayson Ashe brought him home with a sacrifice fly. Brady Thomas then put pressure on with a bunt single to the pitcher's mound with runners at first and third, scoring Caleb Johnson.
 
Johnson and Blauser led six players that had multiple hits with three each.
 
Ashe picked up his second RBI of the game with a groundout to short with runners at second and third to push the advantage to five to kick off a five-run fifth. Thomas then followed with his second RBI on a squib hit to the mound that he beat out to bring home King.
 
"That's how we play and we want to put a lot of pressure on the opposing teams," said Bieser. "There's a design how we do our offense and it hasn't changed."
 
King was 2-for-4 with two runs scored and drew a walk.
 
Cash's second hit of the game came with two outs in the top of the fifth to score Thomas and Sam Richardson, who ripped a ball 112 MPH down the left field line for a double on the second pitch by reliever Kevin Jaxel. Trey Majette made it 9-0 with an RBI triple to the right field corner to bring home Cash.
 
Cash was 2-for-3 with two runs scored and drew two walks. Richardson finished 2-for-4 with two runs scored.
 
Gamecock starter Beau Bryans did not factor in the decision, but was effective for 4.1 innings, allowing two earned on five hits and three walks with five strikeouts on 91 pitches.
 
Virginia (36-22) got its first run in the bottom of the fifth with a Joe Tiroly RBI single to left center after the first two hitters of the inning reached on a double and a four-pitch walk. After Maddox McDougall took over for Bryans, Jake Weatherspoon hit a sacrifice fly to cut the deficit to seven. The Cavaliers then loaded the bases, but a fly ball to center field left all three runners stranded.
 
McDougall picked up his fifth win of the season, throwing an inning-and-two-thirds with three strikeouts to the 10 batters he faced. Chase Horst followed with an inning-and-two-thirds, followed by 1.1 scoreless from Skyler Hutto.
 
The fifth two-out hit of the game for Jax State came in the sixth when Thomas hammered a ball down the right field line to score King to make it 10-2 and force a pitching change. It was also the seventh two-out RBI of the game for the Gamecocks.
 
AJ Gracia got a run back for the Cavaliers in the bottom of the sixth with his 14^th double of the season. Joe Tiroly's 15^th homer of the season brought home Gracia to make it 10-5.
 
The Gamecocks responded in a big way with three runs in the top of the seventh to take a 13-5 advantage. Pate brough home Blauser with a single to the mound, then an RBI groundout by Johnson was followed by a double off the right field wall by King.
 
Pate finished 2-for-5 with two runs scored and drew a walk.
 
Virginia's first two-out hit of the game was an RBI double to the left field wall in the bottom of the eighth by Tiroly. Harrison Didawick followed with an RBI single to right to make it 13-7.
 
Johnson's 10^th homer of the season in the ninth was a two-run shot to push the lead right back to eight.