The Valparaiso University baseball team dropped both games of a doubleheader on Saturday at Jacksonville State in Jacksonville, Ala. The host Gamecocks won the opener 10-2 before prevailing 13-3 in the second game.

How It Happened – Game 1

• Jacksonville State scored single tallies in each of the first three innings and added another in the fifth to build up a 4-0 advantage.
• Jeremy Drudge (Plymouth, Ind. / Plymouth) ripped a triple to drive in a run in the seventh, putting his team on the board. Drudge owns Valpo’s lone homer and lone triple this season.
• The Gamecocks broke it open with two in the seventh and four in the eighth before a run-scoring double by Jonathan Temple (Turlock, Calif. / Turlock [Modesto JC]) in the ninth accounted for Valpo’s second run.
• Drudge and Kyle Schmack (Wanatah, Ind. / South Central) had two hits apiece to make up four of Valpo’s six hits in the opener. Half of the club’s hits did go for extra bases, including a Schmack two-bagger and the aforementioned knocks by Temple and Drudge.  
• Trent Turzenski (Burlington, Wis. / Burlington) allowed four runs (three earned) on six hits in five innings to take the defeat and fall to 0-2.

How It Happened – Game 2

• Valpo struck first in Game 2 as Steven Fitzsimmons (Golden Valley, Minn. / Robbinsdale Cooper) lashed a run-scoring single in the second.
• The bottom of the third was not friendly to the Brown & Gold, as the Gamecocks (4-3) scored seven times to break the game open.
• Jacksonville State added single runs in the fourth and fifth, before Valpo scored twice in the seventh with Jake Kapers (Schererville, Ind. / Mount Carmel) and Alex Thurston (Fowler, Ind. / Benton Central) each notching RBI doubles.
• The Gamecocks tacked on two in the seventh and two more in the eighth.
• Colin Fields (Libertyville, Ill. / Libertyville) took the defeat and fell to 0-2.  
• Fitzsimmons and Kapers each had two hits to contribute to Valpo’s 10-hit output.

Up Next

Valpo (1-5) will have a weekend off before returning the diamond on Friday, March 12 to begin a three-game series with Middle Tennessee State in Murfreesboro, Tenn.