GAME ONE BOX SCORE  |  GAME TWO BOX SCORE

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – Sallie Beth Burch reached base six times in seven plate appearances and Amanda Crow drove in three runs to lead the Jacksonville State softball team to a doubleheader split at Tennessee Tech on Tuesday.

Burch, a junior from Moulton, Ala., went 3-for-4 with a double, two walks and was hit by a pitch at the plate, while Crow, a junior from Sharpsburg, Ga., homered and drove in three runs on a day that saw the Gamecocks (13-14, 2-4 Ohio Valley Conference) win the opener, 5-1, before dropping a 4-1 decision to the Golden Eagles (13-19, 4-3 OVC) in the nightcap.

The first game of the day saw Crow put the Gamecocks on the board in the second with a three-run blast to left, her second long ball of the year that also plated Burch and Krystal Ruth. The lead would be all junior starter Ashley Eliasson would need to earn her ninth win of the season.

The Vallejo, Calif., native held TTU to one run on just four hits in seven innings in the circle, her 12th complete game in 17 starts this season. Eliasson did walk five batters but struck out three and used 117 pitched to manage the Tech lineup and force it to strand nine baserunners in the game.

Burch was 3-for-3 in the game with a double and a run scored, while Ruth notched two of the Gamecocks' 10 hits in four at bats. Ruth, a freshman from Wylie, Texas, also scored a run and drove one in.

Maddie Schmissrauter (5-5) suffered the loss in the circle for the Golden Eagles after allowing five runs, four earned, on 10 hits in six frames. She gave way to Claudia Harke, who tossed a perfect seventh on just nine pitches. Four Tech batters scattered the Golden Eagles' four hits, with Jessica Steele driving in the team's lone run with a bases loaded walk in the second.

In the finale, Tech's Kaleigh Gates did all the damage for the Golden Eagle offense by belting a pair of two-run homers that accounted for all of the TTU offensive output in the game.

The Golden Eagles didn't get their first hit off of JSU starter Hilary Phillips until the third, but they made it count. Gates followed a Lindsey Umberger walk with a home run to center that put TTU up 2-0. She blasted her second two-run shot to center in the fifth to put the Golden Eagles up 4-0, a lead that would prove too much for the Gamecocks to overcome.

JSU plated its lone run in the seventh on an RBI single from freshman Kelci Johnston that scored Amanda Crow after she led off the inning with a single.

Phillips (4-7), a freshman from Ider, Ala., allowed four runs on five hits and three walks in six innings of work in the circle. She would strike out seven batters in a game that saw her labor through 113 pitches.

Holly Thomas (8-9) earned the win for TTU, surrendering a run on five hits in seven strong innings. She walked two and fanned three, throwing just 88 pitches in the complete game.

Johnston, a native of Northport, Ala., went 3-for-4 with an RBI to account for all but two of the Gamecocks' hits on offense.

The Gamecocks will be at home this weekend for a three-game series with first-place UT Martin at University Field. The series will start on Friday with a 1 p.m. doubleheader and will conclude at 1 p.m. on Sunday with a single game. Admission is free to all JSU home games.