PENSACOLA, Fla. – With a come-from-behind 7-6 win over Lee on Friday, the No. 10 University of West Florida softball team advanced to the DII NCAA Softball Championship for the third time in program history. The Argonauts now stand at 45-13 on the year and earn the third NCAA South Regional Championship in program history.
 
"It was just going to take that one person to have a good at-bat and break it open," head coach Melissa Paul. "It just took one hitter to start it, and (Caitlin Steel) got us going and showed that we could do it."
 
Down 4-0 with no hits on the day, UWF used a seven-run sixth inning against Lee's Taylor Moran and Leigh Beatenbough to take the lead and the win. Like it has been all postseason, timely hitting was the difference for West Florida on Friday.
 
Caitlin Steel and Sara Spears led off with consecutive singles in the sixth, and Jacey Castro took advantage of an error by second baseman Zoe Miller to load the bases with nobody out.
 
Meghan Toney, who also had two hits in Thursday's contest, drove in the first runs of the day with a single up the middle to score Steel and Spears. She finished the series leading West Florida with three hits, .500 average, three RBI and two runs scored.
 
"It was a little nerve-wracking at first, but our time was coming," Toney said. "We just capitalized in that inning and it worked for us. When I was coming up for that at-bat, I was just thinking to hit it on the ground so I could bring our runners in. Today it was me, tomorrow, even going to the World Series, it could be someone else."
 
Rhiannon Sassman followed with a single to left field that brought in Castro, and Baleigh Boltz delivered a triple with a hard line drive to right center field that gave UWF the 5-4 lead. Boltz would then come in on an illegal pitch with Tiona Hill at the dish, bring the score to 6-4.
 
With Rachel Wright on second and Steel at first after a fielder's choice, Spears hit a sharp grounder back up the middle at Beatenbough in the circle. Wright took advantage of the Lee misplay and hustled around third and slid into home for what would ultimately be the game-winning run.
 
Sarah Maloney picked up her 14th win of the year after going five strong innings and allowing just four runs against a potent Lee offense, while striking out two Lady Flames. Her effort kept UWF within striking distance and senior Becca Taylor closed the game out, earning her third save of the year with a two-inning performance.
 
Taylor and Maloney combined to throw a 1.27 ERA against Lee over five games this year, keeping Lady Flames hitters to a .193 average with 18 strikeouts in 33 innings.
 
The Argonauts hit the 45-win mark for the first time since 2005 with Friday's victory, and it is the team's first trip to the NCAA Championship since 2003.
 
UWF will head to Salem, Virginia, for the DII NCAA Softball Championship, which begins on Thursday. The Argonauts will be seeded for the tournament on Saturday morning, when all Super Regionals are completed.