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Sunday: Live Stats/Video
 
April 23, 2016
 
PENSACOLA, Fla. – The University of West Florida baseball team celebrated Senior Day prior to the start of Game 1, but it was freshman Robert Lopez who stole the show, going 5-for-7 in Saturday's doubleheader with three home runs, a double and seven RBI.
 
UWF faced first-inning deficits in both contests, but were able to get the bats going and erase those early deficits as the squad combined for 19 runs and 23 hits against Shorter. West Florida won Game 1 by a score of 10-2, before prevailing in Game 2, 9-6.
 
UWF maintains its top spot in the Gulf South Conference with a 22-7 league record while owning a 30-13 overall mark. Shorter falls to 6-23 in the GSC and has a 13-31 overall record on the 2016 season.
 
Game 1: West Florida 10, Shorter 2
 
Shorter opened up the contest with a two spot in the first inning, however the UWF bats were able to quickly erase that early lead as Ladeavon Matthews hit an RBI single in the first and Nick Kerkmann hit a solo home run – his first of the year— over the 370 marker on the left-centerfield fence to tie the score at 2-2.
 
After the rocky first inning, UWF starter Walker O'Connor settled into his outing nicely. After allowing two runs and two hits in the first, O'Connor allowed just three hits for the remaining six innings of his outing. The redshirt junior finished his outing with seven innings pitched, two earned runs, two walks and five strikeouts.
 
Whence UWF was able to tie the score at 2-2, UWF never looked back when taking a 3-2 lead on Robert Lopez's fourth home run of the season in the bottom of the fifth.
 
UWF strung together four runs and five hits in the sixth, as Kerkmann hit an RBI single to right before Nic Strasser hit a two-RBI double to right center to extend UWF's lead to 6-2. Before the end of the inning, Lopez added another RBI on a single to score Strasser and give UWF a 7-2 advantage.
 
The Argos had another big inning in the eighth, beginning with Lopez's RBI double to left to bring in the freshman's third RBI of the game. Michael Savas recorded an RBI on a sacrifice fly, before Alex Greene's RBI single to right capped the scoring for UWF.
 
Sean Kennedy tossed two innings of one-hit relief to close things out on the mound for the Argonauts.
 
Justin Ambrosino and Lopez each led the offense with 3-for-4 showings, while Nick Kerkmann posted a 2-for-3 performance. Alex Greene recorded a 2-for-4 effort in Game 1 from the leadoff spot.
 
Game 2: West Florida 9, Shorter 6
 
Things looked dreary for the Argonauts in the early stages of the game, facing a 6-2 deficit in the top of the third inning. UWF's first pair of runs came from Nic Strasser's team-leading seventh home run of the season, which was off a first-pitch fastball that sent the ball ricocheting off of the light pole over the left-centerfield fence.
 
UWF began its comeback in the bottom of the third, as Nick Kerkmann stayed hot with an RBI single to left to score Ladeavon Matthews. Robert Lopez hit his first home run of the game and second long ball of the day shortly after, giving UWF the three runs it needed to tie the score at 6-6.
 
Jimmy Redovian was able to score the go-ahead run later in the inning after Redovian and Alex Greene attempted a double steal and Shorter catcher Greg Gladden airmailed a throw into left field trying to throw out Redovian. Strasser posted his fifth RBI of the day before the conclusion of the third, singling up the middle to score Greene.
 
Lopez put an exclamation point on his day at the plate with his second home run of the day, a solo round-tripper to centerfield, to add some insurance for UWF in the fourth inning and create a 9-6 lead.
 
Troy Brown made his first career weekend start in Game 2, going two innings and allowing five hits and five earned runs.
 
Jarrod Petree earned his fifth win of the season, throwing 3.2 innings of one-hit baseball. Petree struck out six of the 12 batters he faced and after allowing a bunt single to his first batter; Petree retired 11 batters in a row to finish his outing. Petree lowered his ERA to a bullpen-best 0.94 after his dominating performance against the Hawks.
 
Steve McClellan posted his GSC-high seventh save of the season after tossing a 1-2-3 ninth inning with one strikeout to seal UWF's 9-6 win.
 
Strasser led the team with three hits in his 3-for-4 showing in Game 2, while Lopez lead the team with four RBI in the tail end of the doubleheader. The Argos pushed the pace on the base paths, as four different players including Alex Greene, Strasser, Kyle Hamner and Redovian all stole a base in the contest.
 
Notes
 
West Florida has now won 16 of its last 18 games and maintains its one-game lead for first place in the GSC. Delta State remains a game back after sweeping a doubleheader against Valdosta State, while West Alabama fell to two games back after splitting with West Georgia. Alabama Huntsville remains two games back after sweeping Union.
 
Robert Lopez becomes the first freshman since 2006 to record at least five home runs in a single season. On the day, the freshman from Lakeland, Florida went 5-for-7 with three home runs, seven RBI, a double and four runs scored. Lopez increased his season batting average by .029 on Saturday, as Lopez now possesses a .279 batting average on the season while leading all UWF players with a .541 slugging percentage. 
 
UWF continues its success against the Hawks as the Argos own a perfect 12-0 record in the all-time series against Shorter. UWF has outscored Shorter 80-18 in those 12 contests.
 
Having trailed at one point in both contests on Saturday, UWF completed its eighth and ninth comeback wins of the season.
 
Nick Kerkmann, Alex Greene and Justin Ambrosino all posted three-hit days, as Kerkmann went 3-for-6, Greene went 3-for-7 and Ambrosino went 3-for-8 in Saturday's contests.
 
After hitting his 14^th and 15^th doubles of the season on Saturday, Nic Strasser now sits eighth in the GSC with 15 doubles in 2016.
 
With Jarrod Petree lowering his opponent's batting average to .148 after his outing in Game 2, if that statistic is maintained or lowered by season's end, Petree would be the first player in UWF history to have an opponent's batting average under .150 with at least 35 innings pitched. The statistic began being recorded at the start of the 1995 season.
 
Kyle Hamner had his 22-game hitting streak snapped two weeks ago against West Alabama, but since that point Hamner has started a new five-game hitting streak. With that, Hamner has now recorded a hit in 30 of his last 32 games and has recorded at least one hit in 34 of his 39 games played this year.
 
Ladeavon Matthews had a 10-game hitting streak snapped in Game 2 after going 0-for-2 at the plate. During that streak, Matthews hit .432 (16-for-37) with 10 RBI.
 
With each player having multi-RBI games in both sides of Saturday's doubleheader, Nic Strasser and Robert Lopez lead the team with nine and eight multi RBI games, respectively.
 
West Florida will try to pull off the sweep tomorrow afternoon, as the UWF-SU series finale is slated for a 1:00 p.m. start.
 
To stay updated on the UWF baseball team, follow the team on Twitter @UWF_Baseball. For information on all UWF Athletics, visit GoArgos.com.