PENSACOLA, Fla. – The University of West Florida softball team reached the 30-win mark for the first time since 2012 with a victory over Spring Hill on Wednesday afternoon at the UWF Softball Complex. The Argos stand at 30-11 on the year and recorded 10 or more hits in a game for the 17th time this year.
After Spring Hill plated a run in the top half of the first, UWF evened the score at 1-1.
Emily Pettigrew and
Meghan Toney led off the inning with a pair of singles, and
Kathleen Smiley was hit by a pitch to load the bases with one away.
Jacey Castro then hit a sharp grounder to third, and a play was made at home for the second out. The run came in to score, however, when Badgers catcher Kali Clement tried for the double play with a throw to first that went far wide of first baseman Madeline Burchell.
Kalyn Chapman and the UWF defense held Spring Hill scoreless for the next 2 2/3 innings, and the senior retired eight of nine batters faced from the middle of the first through the end of the third. Her final line read five innings pitched, with two strikeouts and just two hits allowed, and she picked up her 14th win of the season.
Becca Taylor finished the game off by retiring all six batters she faced over the final two innings. With their efforts, Chapman's opponent batting average dropped to .217 and Taylor's team-best ERA sank to 2.19, both of which rank well inside the top 10 in the conference.
Toney and
Rhiannon Sassman kicked off the third inning by drawing back-to-back walks off Badgers pitcher Caroline Sagrera, and Castro came through again – this time with an RBI single into left field. SHC evened the score again in the top of the fourth, but UWF struck for five runs in the bottom half to take a 7-2 lead.
Chelsy Krantz started the inning with a leadoff walk and was moved to second on
Caitlin Steel's sacrifice bunt. Pettigrew then singled past a diving third baseman and stole second with Toney at the plate to put two runners on. Toney walked to load the bases, and Krantz came in on a passed ball with Sassman at the plate to take a 3-2 lead.
Sassman laced her third triple of the year into right field to clear the bases and put UWF up 5-2. Smiley followed that with a double to score Sassman, and the first baseman came into score when
Rachel Wright's grounder to shortstop Carmen Byrd got by the Badgers first baseman, making the score 7-2.
The Argos tallied two more runs in the fifth, beginning when Toney lifted a hustle double into shallow left field that scored Steel. With Toney in scoring position, Sassman ripped her second triple of the game into right-center field and grabbed her third RBI of the day.
After tallying those three runs driven in, Sassman moved into the top 10 in the GSC in RBIs for the year, and Toney's three runs scored on the day put her in fifth place in the league.
Pettigrew reached for the 25th consecutive game with two singles, which surpassed Karri Bisbee's longest such streak since the stat has been officially recorded, beginning in 2011.
West Florida will host West Alabama in a Gulf South Conference series this weekend, with action starting at 1 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday.
For information on all UWF athletics, visit
www.GoArgos.com.
