BOX SCORE

JACKSONVILLE – Fielding miscues spoiled a pitchers duel for the Jacksonville State softball team on Thursday, when the Gamecocks let a late lead slip away in a 5-3 extra innings loss to SIU-Edwardsville at University Field.

JSU junior pitcher Ashley Eliasson took a 2-0 lead and a two-hit shutout into the top of the seventh inning, but a throwing error by the hurler set up a game-tying home run from Taylor Tooley and another in the eighth set the stage for the Cougars (2-2) to pull off the win. The Gamecocks (2-1) committed three errors in the final two innings to let the lead slip away in the first all-time meeting between them and the future member of the Ohio Valley Conference.

Erika Taylor went the distance for SIUE and struck out 12 JSU batters along the way. The Gamecocks mustered just three hits and drew three walks in the game.

Senior Chrissy O'Neal was 1-for-3 with JSU's lone RBI, a double in the fifth that scored Mary Beth Ledbetter from second to break a scoreless tie. Junior Sallie Beth Burch doubled and walked twice in her three plate appearances, while sophomore Meredith Sellers singled to account for the Gamecocks' other hits.

Tooley had two of the Cougars' seven hits and drove in three of their five runs, while Lauren Zembruski's sacrifice fly drove in SIUE's only other RBI.

Eliasson (1-1) was tagged with the loss after surrendering four runs, two earned, on four hits in seven-plus innings in the circle. She faced two batters in the eighth before giving way to freshman Hilary Phillips, who allowed an unearned run on three singles and struck out two batters.

The Gamecocks will have the weekend off before traveling to Auburn on Wednesday for a single game at 5 p.m. JSU's next home game will be March 20, when the Gamecocks open OVC play against Eastern Illinois.