BATON ROUGE, La. – A four-run fifth inning did the Jacksonville State softball team in on Sunday in a 5-1 loss to No. 16 LSU on the final day of the LSU Tiger Invitational.

Trailing by one in the third, the Gamecocks (4-4) got a game-tying solo home run from senior Chrissy O'Neal but the Tigers broke the game open in the home half of the fifth. LSU got a pair of RBI singles that each resulted in throwing errors that allowed two more runs to score and put the game out of reach for JSU.

The Gamecocks got all six of their hits from the top three spots in the batting order, led by their two-hole hitter Hillary Downs. Downs, a native of Childersburg, Ala., was 3-for-3 on the day, while leadoff hitter O'Neal went 2-for-4. Senior Nikki Prier went 1-for-3 in the No. 3 spot in the lineup.

O'Neal's home run was her second of the year and tied the Dallas, Ga., native with Rachel Countryman for second on the school's career home runs list with 36. She and Prier were the Gamecocks' representatives on the All-Tournament Team.

LSU scattered its eight hits among seven batters, led by Kirsten Shortridge's 2-for-4 afternoon. Ashley Applegate, Courtney Hollier and Lauren Houston each drove in a run. Cody Trahan went the distance for the Tigers to earn the win. She held JSU to a run on six hits while striking out 10 and walking a batter in her seven innings of work.

For the Gamecocks, junior Ashley Eliasson took her fourth-straight defeat in the circle after allowing five runs, three earned, on eight hits in her six innings in the circle. The Vallejo, Calif., native walked two and struck out one of the 29 batters she faced.

The Gamecocks will next be in action on Friday, when they begin the Georgia Tech Buzz Classic in Woodstock, Ga. They will take on Kentucky on Friday at 3 p.m. CT before facing Western Kentucky at 5 p.m. CT.