PENSACOLA, Fla. – The No. 35 West Florida baseball team split a doubleheader with North Alabama to open Gulf South Conference play Saturday at Jim Spooner Field.
The Argonauts (6-2, 1-1) lost game one 6-4 but came back to win game two 6-0 against the Lions (7-2, 1-1).
"North Alabama is a good team," UWF coach
Mike Jeffcoat said. "It's conference play. We had opportunities in the first game. We just let them keep tacking on runs. Give them credit. Their pitcher did a great job settling down after we had a 3-0 lead and he really shut us down for seven innings.
"I'm proud of the way the guys bounced back in the second game.
Brandon Nagem threw an outstanding game for us. We made some nice defensive plays. We got on the board early and really set the tone with a big four-run second inning."
On the day, freshman
Nic Strasser (Orlando, Fla./Dr. Phillips HS) went 4-for-7 with a double and two runs,
Jordan Stark (Flowood, Miss./Jones County CC) went 3-for-6 with a double and
Chase Kiefer (Pensacola, Fla./Pensacola Catholic HS) went 3-for-9 with a double, three RBIs and a run.
Game One: West Florida 4, North Alabama 6 In game one, starting pitcher
Jarrod Petree (Orlando, Fla./Central Florida) pitched five innings, allowing three runs, two earned, with one walk and three strikeouts to finish with no decision.
Walker O'Connor (Bedford, Mass./Malden Catholic HS) was credited with his first loss of the year in relief.
UWF took a 3-1 lead after scoring one in the first on an RBI single from
Michael Tomlinson (Maitland, Fla./Winter Park HS) and two in the second on four hits.
But the Lions scored runs in the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh innings, and UWF was only able to answer with a run in the seventh on a
Ledarious Clark (Meridian, Miss./East Mississippi CC) RBI single.
Game Two: West Florida 6, North Alabama 0 Brandon Nagem (Pensacola, Fla./Northwest Florida State) improved to 3-0 after extending his consecutive scoreless innings streak to 15 with a complete game, seven-inning shutout. He has yet to allow an earned run this season in 19.2 innings. Nagem allowed three hits and struck out eight Saturday.
"I felt good," Nagem said. "I knew I needed to give my team a helping hand, and the defense played great behind me.
Back-to-back RBI doubles from
Jimmy Redovian (Franklin, Tenn./Wake Forest) and Kiefer followed by a two-run homer by Clark gave UWF a 4-0 lead in the second.
The Argos added runs in the third and fourth innings on an RBI single from Kiefer and a sac fly from
Sean Plunkett (Ocala, Fla./College of Central Florida).
"It was a critical game to get to the game tomorrow," Jeffcoat said. "We need to come back out with the same intensity to keep rolling."
UWF will host UNA in the final game of the series Sunday, Feb. 14, at 1 p.m. at Jim Spooner Field.
For information on all UWF athletics, visit www.GoArgos.com.