THE LEAD
No. 23 DBU evened the weekend series with Jacksonville State, defeating the Gamecocks 10-6 on Saturday afternoon at Horner Ballpark. Matt Duce, Devlin Granberg and Camden Duzenack each hit homeruns to lead the Patriot offense. Overall, Granberg went 3-for-4 with an RBI and two runs scored.
 
Ray Gaither (2-0) earned the win for the Patriots after tossing 4 1/3 scoreless innings of relief for starting pitcher Trevor Conn. Gaither struck out six Gamecocks and allowed just four hits with no walks. Derrick Adams (1-1) suffered the loss after giving up seven runs on six hits in three innings of work, finishing with three strikeouts and four walks. Seth Elledge (3) picked up the save after pitching a perfect ninth inning to close out the Gamecocks.
 
JSU once again got on the board first after a three-run homerun by Trent Simpson that just soared over the wall in left field to go ahead 3-0. DBU cut into the lead in the bottom of the opening frame as Jameson Hannah scored on a throwing error by Taylor Hawthorne that would've brought an end to the inning. Following the homerun, Conn retired the next five Gamecocks, setting down three on strikes. The Patriots turned the tables in the bottom of the second with a three run inning of their own to go on top 4-3, highlighted by a pair of RBI singles by Luke Stratman and Tim Millard. JSU flipped the lead again in the top of the third on another long ball from Hawthorne.
 
In the top of the fourth, the Gamecocks extended their lead to 6-4 on a Clayton Daniel RBI single, forcing Conn out of the game for Ray Gaither, who struck out the final batter of the top of the fourth. Conn went 3 2/3 innings, allowing six runs on five hits with four strikeouts. Camden Duzenack cut the lead in half with one swing in the bottom of the inning with a 400' solo shot to make it 6-5. DBU regained the lead with a five-run fourth inning behind a pair of homeruns, a solo shot from Camden Duzenack and a three-run blast by Matt Duce.  The Patriots reached double-digit runs on a solo homer by Devlin Granberg to extend the lead to 10-6 in the seventh.
 
After reliever Landon Wilson allowed the first two batters to reach base in the top of the ninth, Heefner brought out his closer, Seth Elledge to close out the game.
 
THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
 - Ray Gaither set career highs in innings pitched (4.1) and strikeouts (6) in his outing.
 - DBU went 2-for-4 with runners on third with less than two outs.
 - Saturday marked the first Patriot victory in 2017 in which their opponent scored first. 

COACH DAN HEEFNER – ON RAY GAITHER'S OUTING
"Ray did a super job for us again, and I think what you said nailed it, he's a calming force for us. He's got great stuff.  He's going to touch 95-96 everytime he's out there, but he can really pitch. He threw some great breaking balls. Obviously, everytime he's gone out he has a plus changeup to go with that fastball that makes him really tough. The thing you like the best is he looks like he's in complete control. He doesn't get flustered. He can close the game down. When there's guys on base, it doesn't matter for him. Last week, when we brought him in against New Mexico, a really good offensive team, with the bases loaded, he got a groundball out and he goes walking off the mound and his heart rate seemed like it was at 50. He's doing a super job for us, but at the same time, we don't want to extend him as much as we've been doing. You couldn't really ask for anything more out of him."
 
COACH DAN HEEFNER – ON THE TEAM'S OFFENSIVE APPROACH
"I thought we had better at bats throughout. Last night, we did a really good job in the first two innings and then had some opportunities elsewhere. Just to be able to chip away here and there, I thought we had very good plate discipline last night, drawing a bunch of walks, but then when you get guys in scoring position, you're not looking to walk anymore. You're not going to walk your way to eight runs. The way you score a bunch of runs is you have good plate discipline, and then when those guys are on base and you get a pitch to hit, you got to go. I thought the guys did a better job of being aggressive in those situations.
 
RAY GAITHER – ON PITCHING A CAREER-LONG 4 1/3 INNINGS
 "I felt like I got stronger throughout the game. I was pretty much living with fastball and changeup the first few innings and then went to my slider, and later on in the fourth, I broke out my slider."
 
RAY GAITHER – ON GOING FROM DH TO PITCHER IN A GAME
"It's the first time I've done it this year, so it's definitely a little bit different of a feel. I was just trying to stay as locked in as I could on both sides
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
3 – The win sets up the third straight Sunday rubber match to open the season for DBU.
1.7 – The Patriots are averaging 1.7 homeruns per game through 10 games this season.
17 – Seth Elledge earned his 17^th career save and is eight saves away from matching Chris Haney (25).
 
UP NEXT
DBU and JSU play the rubber match of the weekend series on Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. at Horner Ballpark. MD Johnson (0-0) takes the mound for the Patriots against Colton Pate (0-1) for the Gamecocks.