THE LEAD
No. 23 DBU won their third straight series to begin the season after defeating Jacksonville State, 14-10, on Sunday afternoon at Horner Ballpark. Tim Millard went 3-for-4 with four RBI and three runs scored to fuel the high-scoring Patriot offense. Jameson Hannah and Camden Duzenack each went 2-for-4 and combined for seven runs scored.
 
Travis Stone (2-1) earned the win for DBU after throwing four scoreless innings of relief, allowing five hits with one strikeout. Trent Simpson (0-1) suffered the loss, giving up the three go-ahead runs in the sixth and seventh. Seth Elledge (4) picked up the save after retiring the final two batters of the ninth inning with the bases loaded.
 
For the third time in the series, JSU scored in the opening half inning as the Gamecocks scored two on a pair of RBI singles by Trent Simpson and Hayden White. DBU answered in the bottom of the first with three runs, beginning with an RBI double off the bat of Matt Duce. Devlin Granberg followed with an RBI single, and then Logan Sepanek flied to right field, allowing Duce to score. JSU answered in the top of the second on a two-run single by Nolan Greckel to regain the lead at 4-3. After walking the first two batters in the top of the third, Heefner brought Coby Weaver out of the pen to relieve MD Johnson, who walked six in 2+ innings and allowed six runs on six hits.
 
After a single loaded the bases, the Gamecocks put three on the board on a groundout by Greckel and and RBI double from Clayton Daniel. Two batters later, Taylor Hawthorne singled home Daniel to bring the score to 8-3. Duzenack led off the fourth inning with an infield single, followed by a Luke Stratman hit by pitch, forcing Pate out of the game for Tyler Wilburn. Wilburn walked the bases loaded, setting up Millard for a two-run single to left field to cut the lead to 8-5.  After once again walking the bases loaded, JSU went to the bullpen again for Corley Woods, who allowed an RBI single to Granberg to make it 8-7 before retiring the next three batters.
 
With runners on the corners in the fifth, Dan Heefner called on his bullpen again for Travis Stone, who gave up an RBI single to Hawthorne to extend the Gamecock lead to 9-7. Stone forced Trent Simpson to fly out to left, but another run crossed the plate for JSU, making it 10-7. The Patriots tied the ballgame with a three-run fifth, highlighted by an RBI double from Austin Listi. In the following inning, DBU led off with two base hits by Garrett Wolforth and Duzenack. After Wolforth advanced on a Stratman flyout, both Duzenack and Wolforth scored on a wild play where no one was on the other end of a Hayden White throw to catch Duzenack stealing. After Wolforth crossed the plate, Duzenack saw a window to get home on the play of the Gamecocks and increased the lead to 12-10.
 
Listi led off the seventh inning with another double, advancing to third on a lineout by Duce and scoring on a throwing error by Hawthorne. The Patriots added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth on an RBI triple by Tim Millard to make it 14-10. JSU threatened in the top of the ninth with three consecutive base hits off Stone to load the bases, forcing Heefner to call on his closer, Seth Elledge. Elledge forced two flyouts to end the game.
 
THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
 - DBU's first three hitters combined to go 7-for-13 with five RBI and eight runs scored.
 - The Patriots have forced and won three rubber matches in their first three series' of the season.
 - Sunday marks the fifth straight game where DBU has scored in the first inning. 

COACH DAN HEEFNER – ON HIS TEAM'S AGGRESSIVENESS IN THIS TYPE OF GAME
"That's really what that was, just grinding it out, and I thought we did a really good job. It's easy to get deflated, especially after the first inning giving up two, and we came right back and got the lead, and then to give up six right after that. It was a super job by the offense and by the entire team. Everybody believed that we could do it. I was really proud of the aggressiveness. It's something that we're doing a better job of. If we're going to make a mistake, it's going to be an aggressive mistake and not waiting for things to happen. The three runs we got there in the late innings were due to aggressive baserunning, so I thought we saw some good things as far as that goes."
 
CAMDEN DUZENACK – ON THE TEAM'S APPROACH
"It's never one guy doing anything. We scored 14 runs and one guy can't score 14 runs in a game. A big key part of that is just how we walk up to the plate and the confidence we have when we step into the box. When we get a leadoff guy on, we pretty much know every time we're going to score runs. We got down at the beginning of the game, but we chipped away and then we're on top."
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
50 – DBU and JSU combined for 50 runs in the weekend series.
5 – Five of the Patriots' 14 runs were unearned.
11 – Tim Millard and Devlin Granberg combined for 11 hits in the past two games.
 
UP NEXT
DBU travels across the Metroplex to Fort Worth to take on No. 1 TCU on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at Lupton Stadium.