GAME ONE FINAL STATS  |   GAME TWO FINAL STATS

JACKSONVILLE – Steven Leach had six hits and Todd Cunninham added five more to lead Jacksonville State to an Ohio Valley Conference double-header sweep over Eastern Illinois at Rudy Abbott Field on Saturday. The Gamecocks rallied for a 12-11 win in the opener and then cruised to an 8-5 win in the second game.

Jax State improves to 23-20 overall and 10-6 in the conference and is currently tied for second with Southeast Missouri State, just 1/2 game behind Murray State. Eastern Illinois drops to 13-31 overall and 8-11 in the conference.

In the opener, the Gamecocks rallied from a six-run deficit and scored seven runs over the final three innings to earn their second walk-off OVC win of the year.

Trailing 9-3 entering the home half of the sixth inning, the Gamecocks scored a pair of runs on a solo home run by Sam Eberle and a RBI single by Bert Smith to cut the lead to 9-5.

The Panthers scored a run in the top of the seventh after Alex Gee hit his second home run of the day to extend the lead to 10-5, but the Gamecocks rallied in the home half of the seventh.

Andrew Edge led off with a walk and Jake Sharrock followed with a double to right field, and Edge came around to score after the right fielder mishandled the ball to cut the lead to 10-6.

Following a walk to Daniel Adamson and a single by Eberle to load the bases, Leach had a single to right field to drive in a run and cut the lead to 10-7. Matt McLaughlin followed with a pinch-hit bases loaded hit-by-pitch to cut the deficit to 10-8.

Cunningham then hit a deep fly ball to centerfield to score Eberle from third and Kyle Bluestein then had a two-RBI double to center to give the Gamecocks their first lead of the day at 11-10.

Eastern Illinois then score a run in the top of the ninth inning on a RBI single by Cam Strang, but the Gamecocks answered in the bottom of the inning.

EIU reliever Mike Recchia came in and gave up a single to Steven Leach, before Blake Seguin laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Leach to second. Cunningham was intentionally walked and Bert Smith walked to load the bases. Jay Davis came in to pinch hit and had a single down the left field line to score Leach and give JSU the win.

JSU's Todd Hornsby (3-1) had three strikeouts over the final two innings to earn the win, while Recchia (4-5) got stuck with the loss after giving up two hits and walking two in the ninth inning.

Leach had four hits in the opener and scored four runs, while Cunningham and Eberle each had two hits for the Gamecocks.

Strang and Daniel Rowe each had four hits to lead Eastern Illinois, which finished the game with 21 hits.

In the second game, Austin Lucas (3-0) pitched his second complete game of the year, recording six strikeouts and allowing just five hits to earn the win for Jax State. Mike Hoekstra (3-4) gave up eight runs and nine hits in 5 1/3 innings to suffer the loss for the Panthers.

The Gamecocks took a 1-0 lead after Cunningham led the game off with a solo home to left center, before JSU added five runs in the second inning, highlighted by a three-run home run by Bluestein.

The Panthers scored three in the third after Gee hit a three-run homer to left field to cut the lead to 6-3, but JSU added a run in the home half of the third on a RBI single by Leach to extend the lead to 7-3.

Eastern Illinois then scored two in the fifth after Zack Borenstein had a two-RBI single to cut the lead to 7-5, but Bluestein had a sacrifice fly in the sixth to score Matt McLaughlin for the final margin.

Cunningham went 3-for-4 and scored two runs, while Leach added two more hits to lead the Gamecocks. Richie Derbak had two hits to lead the Panthers in the second game. JSU's Bert Smith had a pair of stolen bases in the game, as the senior from Pelham recorded his 100th career stolen base.

The two teams will play the final game of the OVC series on Sunday. Game time is set for 1 p.m. at Rudy Abbott Field.