JSU baseball: Gamecocks fall again at Lipscomb, wrap up fourth place

In the bottom of the ninth, Lipscomb's Caleb Ketchup broke the tie with a two-out solo shot off JSU's Trey Fortner (2-6), who otherwise had been solid in relief. He worked 2⅔ innings and allowed only one hit — the home run. He struck out three.

Lipscomb (32-22, 22-7 ASUN) remains in first place in the league standings ahead of Florida Gulf Coast (38-15, 20-8). FGCU has two games left with Kennesaw State, while Lipscomb and JSU are set to close out their regular season against each other Saturday.

Stetson (32-21, 19-9) wrapped up no worse than third in the ASUN standings, while JSU (25-27, 18-11) will finish fourth.

Unfortunately for the Gamecocks, while the regular-season champion gets the top seed for the ASUN tournament, the remaining seven seeds are determined by RPI, rather than a team's placing in the standings. JSU almost certainly will be seventh or eighth among the eight ASUN tournament teams.

The top four seeds will play in the top pool, with the top three advancing to the tournament semifinals. The next four seeds play in the bottom pool, with only the pool winner advancing to the semifinals.

What to know

—Tanner Jones started and pitched 2⅓ innings, allowing one run. Sam Maynard pitched two-thirds of an inning and didn't give up a run. Colin Casey pitched three innings and allowed four runs before giving way to Fortner.

—Mason Maners and Bear Madliak each went 2-for-5 and scored a run. Maners stole a base.

—Norton was 2-for-4 with the solo home run. Jarrett Eaton was 2-for-4 as well.

—Carson Crowe was 1-for-3 with a double, a walk and two RBIs. Derrick Jackson Jr. was 1-for-5 with a run and an RBI. Javon Hernandez was 1-for-5 with an RBI. T.J. Reeves was 0-for-3 but walked twice and scored a run.

Next up

—JSU and Lipsomb will play Saturday at 1 p.m. to finish the regular season.