JSU baseball: Casey, Reeves shine, but Gamecocks suffer another frustrating midweek loss
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May 3—JACKSONVILLE — After missing all of last season because of Tommy John surgery, Jacksonville State's Colin Casey showed a little his old self Wednesday against Samford.
In his struggle to return, Casey had pitched in only three games this season and never more than two innings. But against Samford, he worked four innings, allowed three hits and one walk. Of the 48 pitches he threw, 29 were strikes.
The Jacksonville High graduate didn't allow a run in the first three innings, but three fielding errors by the JSU defense helped Samford put up four runs in the fourth. Only one was earned, and a good day was spoiled, as JSU went on to lose 10-6.
"His velocity was back," JSU coach Jim Case said. "I thought he threw the ball extremely well. He just happened to be in there when we had maybe the worst inning we've had in maybe 20-something years I've been here. It was a horrible, horrible inning. To his credit, he kept filling the strike zone up. He kept making pitches."
Casey has had to travel a long road to get to this point, and Case said his approach to the mishaps of the fourth inning may have earned him even more respect from his teammates than he already had.
"I never saw him look or kick the mound or blame anyone," Case said. "That's a positive thing. When a guy is coming back like that, they want to play lights out behind him because they know how hard he's worked to get his behind back on the mound."
The day was especially frustrating for JSU, and not just because Casey didn't get to finish his outing as well as he had started.
JSU (21-23) lost yet again in a midweek game. The Gamecocks are 1-10 during the middle of the week, with the lone win coming against defending national champion Ole Miss. The weekends haven't treated JSU nearly as horribly.
The Gamecocks are 14-7 in the ASUN Conference, which is good for fourth place — only one game out of second place and two out of the league lead.
"Thank the Good Lord we haven't been struggling as bad on the weekends," Case said. "These games, they do mean a lot. Don't take me the wrong way. These games mean a lot. I want to win every single one of them. I can't stand to lose to Samford, to UAB or to anybody else we play in the middle of the week, but when it comes right down to it, what we do on the weekends is most important, and we're 14-7."
JSU did manage to take a 6-5 lead in the bottom of the fifth inning. Mason Maners singled home a run, and T.J. Reeves followed with a three-run homer. After that, Derrick Jackson Jr. doubled, but the Gamecocks didn't get another baserunner until the bottom of the ninth.
Jarrett Eaton walked, and Caleb Johnson doubled. That brought up leadoff hitter Bear Madliak, and Samford responded by bringing in closer Ben Petschke.
Petchke worked a 3-0 count to Madliak, who took the next three pitches. All three were strikes for the first out.
Then Javon Hernandez grounded a shot back to Petchke, who threw to first to get the out. Johnson had strayed too far off second base, anticipating that Eaton would go home. Samford threw to second to get Johnson for the last out.
It topped a day that included the three errors and a pitching staff that gave up eight walks.
"We played poorly," Case said. "We played poorly in a lot of areas. That's my job to have us ready to play, and we were not ready defensively. We didn't pitch it very good, and we didn't run the bases very good. We've got to put that behind us."
What to know
—After Casey threw the first four innings, Josh Sibley (two innings, one run), Garret Telaga (two-thirds, two runs), Sam Maynard (one-third, one inning), Trey Fortner (1 2/3 innings, two runs) and Camden Lovrich (one-third, no runs) finished the game.
—Reeves went 2-for-4 with a triple, a homer and four RBIs.
—Maners was 2-for-3 with a triple, a walk and an RBI.
—Jackson was 2-for-4 with two doubles and an RBI.
Who said
—Case on the stretch run in the ASUN: "We're 14-7. If we do something special in the next three weeks, we might have a chance to win the league. So, we will not do that if we start pointing fingers and say, 'That's off, and this is off.' There's plenty to point at today, and we could do that and we're going to talk about it, but we're going to talk about it from the standpoint of trying to learn from it."
Next up
—About an hour after the Samford loss, JSU hopped on a bus to Virginia for a three-game series at Liberty. They'll play Friday at 5 p.m., Saturday at 3 p.m. and Sunday at noon.
Senior Editor Mark Edwards: 256-235-3570. On Twitter: @MarkSportsStar.