JACKSONVILLE, Ala. — WKU Softball\u00a0lost to Jacksonville State 4-2 on Friday at Jana McGinnis Field in Jacksonville, Alabama.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Hilltoppers (19-4 overall, 3-1 CUSA) held the Gamecocks\u00a0(18-8 overall, 3-1 CUSA) scoreless through 5.1 innings\u00a0and were able to score two runs in the top of the seventh before Jax State took the win.
\n\u00a0
\nJSU 4, WKU 2\u00a0
\nHOW IT HAPPENED\u00a0<\/p>\n
Erica Houge<\/a> earned her 11th start of the season on Friday and fired 5.1 scoreless innings\u00a0before\u00a0giving way to Rylan Smith<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Jax State got its first baserunner of the sixth with a walk and scored its first run with a double.\u00a0The Gamecocks then strung together three singles in a row to score three runs\u00a0and\u00a0push\u00a0their lead to 4-0 before WKU was able to record the third out.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Lauren Satterly<\/a>\u00a0pinch hit for Katie Murphy<\/a> and kicked off the visiting half of the seventh with a walk.\u00a0Murphy returned to the base\u00a0paths\u00a0and\u00a0Jax State issued another walk to Morgan Sharpe<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0put\u00a0Murphy in scoring position at second base.\u00a0<\/p>\n Kendle White<\/a> continued to move the baserunners with a groundout to second to push Sharpe to second and Murphy to third.\u00a0<\/p>\n With two runners in scoring position, Jenna Blanton<\/a> earned the first RBI of the night for WKU with a single to shortstop to score Murphy.\u00a0<\/p>\n Blanton then stole\u00a0second,\u00a0and Annie White<\/a> grabbed the second RBI with a single to second base to advance Blanton to third and score Sharpe.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n WKU’s\u00a0comeback efforts\u00a0came to an end\u00a0with back-to-back outs.\u00a0
\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\nNOTABLES\u00a0
\n
\n<\/p>\n
\n\tErica Houge<\/a>\u00a0finished with two strikeouts.\u00a0\u00a0
\n\tAnnie White<\/a>\u00a0extended her hitting streak to seven games while Morgan Sharpe<\/a> extended her reached base streak to 15 games.\u00a0\u00a0
\n\tMorgan Sharpe<\/a> went a perfect 2-for-2 at the plate with a double and a triple.\u00a0
\n\tWith the loss, WKU’s win streak ends at 14 games, the longest in program history.\u00a0\u00a0
<\/p>\n
\nUP NEXT\u00a0
\nWKU faces Jax State in Game Two of the series on Saturday, March 14. First pitch is set for 1 p.m. CT and\u00a0will be broadcast on ESPN+.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Ala. — WKU Softball\u00a0lost to Jacksonville State 4-2 on Friday at Jana McGinnis Field in Jacksonville, Alabama.\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191083,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-191082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}