GAME ONE BOX SCORE  |  GAME TWO BOX SCORE

JACKSONVILLE – The Gamecocks' bats woke up in the second game of a doubleheader with Middle Tennessee on Wednesday, when the Jacksonville State softball team avenged a 1-0 loss in the opener with a 5-1 win at University Field.

Sophomore Kaycee Crow went 2-for-3 with a two-run home run to lead the Gamecocks (11-12) to the win in the nightcap after freshman Hilary Phillips suffered a tough-luck loss after not allowing an earned run in 10 innings of work in the opener. The Blue Raiders (9-11) got a 10-inning shutout from Lindsey Vander Lugt in the first game before allowing five runs on 11 hits in the finale.

In that first game, Phillips (4-5) labored her way through the 10 innings, throwing 153 pitches, 101 for strikes. The Ider, Ala., native surrendered an unearned run in the 10th because of the international tiebreaker rule that placed a runner on second to begin the inning. Despite suffering the loss, she struck out eight batters and limited MTSU to the unearned run on five hits and a pair of walks.

It was Vander Lugt (8-6) who would come out in the pitchers' duel, striking out nine Gamecocks in her 10 scoreless frames. She gave up just five hits, four of which were infield singles, and needed just 110 pitches, 83 that were thrown for strikes.

JSU never got a runner past second against Vander Lugt, with senior Hillary Downs, going 2-for-4 and senior Mary Beth Ledbetter 2-for-3 to lead the JSU offense. Senior Chrissy O'Neal had JSU's only other hit.

The Blue Raiders got two hits from Corrie Abel and one each from Caitlin McClure, Jessi Couch and Kandra Singleton. They scored the lone run of the game on a fielding error by JSU shortstop Tess Echols.

In the second game of the twinbill, it was Crow's team-best fourth home run of the season that finally got the Gamecock offense going. With junior Sallie Beth Burch standing on second in the bottom of the second, the lazy fly ball just cleared the wall in left to erase a 1-0 MTSU lead and give Jax State a 2-1 lead that it would not relinquish.

Starter Ashley Eliasson would go the distance in the game, allowing a run on just two hits in seven innings in the circle. The junior from Vallejo, Calif., walked three and struck out one in a complete game that saw her throw 130 pitches.

Burch joined Crow as two of four JSU players that recorded two hits in the game. Freshman Krystal Ruth went 2-for-4 with two RBI, while Burch drove in a run on an RBI single in the third that gave the Gamecocks a 3-1 lead.

The Gamecocks gave Eliasson a pair of insurance runs in the home half of the sixth, thanks to a five-hit frame that was highlighted by a two-run, bases loaded single from Ruth that put the deciding 5-1 score on the board.

Janele Robinson (1-2) was tagged with the loss for MTSU after surrendering two runs on three hits in just two innings of work. Caty Jutson tossed the final four innings, giving up three runs, two earned, on eight hits in the process.

The Gamecocks will return to Ohio Valley Conference play this weekend, when they travel to Murray, Ky., for a three-game series at Murray State. It will be the first-ever meeting between JSU and MSU, who is in its first season of softball. The series will start on Saturday with a doubleheader at 1 p.m. They will conclude the weekend on Sunday with a single game at 1 p.m.