May 19, 2016
 
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TAMPA – The University of West Florida begins the 2016 NCAA Division II South Regional on Thursday in its first-ever meeting against Claflin at 3:00 p.m. ET on Wednesday. Freshman right-hander Gray Dorsey is set to make his first postseason start against the Panthers.
 
NCAA TOURNAMENT HISTORY: West Florida is 11-9 all-time in NCAA South Regional action... It marks the fifth regional appearance in the last seven years for the Argonauts and the first appearance since 2013... Three players on the 2016 roster saw action in the 2013 South Regional in Tampa, Florida including Chase Kiefer, Kyle Hamner and Josh McLaney... Of UWF's six regional appearances, four of them have been hosted by the University of Tampa... UWF won the 2011 South Regional on the way to its 2011 NCAA Division II National Championship... UWF's #2 seed is the highest seed for the Argos since being the host institution and #1 seed in 2011.

RECAPPING GSC TOURNAMENT: West Florida had a uncharacteristic performance in the 2016 NCAA Division II, going just 1-2 as the tournament's host... West Florida won a thrilling contest in the first round, as Justin Ambrosino's walkoff grand slam in the bottom of the ninth sealed an 11-7 victory against the No. 6-seeded Lee Flames... UWF would then drop a back-and-forth, 4-3, contest against West Alabama despite a top-notch start from Walker O'Connor, allowing just one earned run and six hits over six innings of work... Brandon Nagem turned in his best start of the season against West Georgia in an elimination contest, going a team season-high 8.2 innings... Despite Nagem's eight strikeout, one-earned run performance, UWF fell to the Wolves, 3-1... West Florida owns a .305 batting average on the season, but hit just .250 as a team over the course of its three games in the GSC Tournament.

NAGEM, GREENE NAMED ALL-TOURNAMENT: Shortstop Alex Greene and starting left-handed pitcher Brandon Nagem became the 18th and 19th players in program history to be named to the GSC All-Tournament team after impressive individual performances... Greene went 5-for-12 with a home run, four RBI and a .500 on base percentage while making several impressive plays at shortstop for the Argonauts... Nagem went 8.2 innings against UWG, allowing just six hits and one run with eight strikeouts and no walks... At one point in his outing, Nagem retired 11 consecutive batters while holding the Wolves to a .200 batting average for the game.

NICE TO MEET YA: UWF and Claflin will meet for the first time ever in the opening round of the South Regional... The Argonauts and Panthers have two common opponents this year in Florida Southern in Stillman... In five games against those opponents, Claflin was outscored 28-58, while UWF outscored those opponents 22-12 over four games... A key matchup to watch will be backstop Kyle Hamner, the GSC's top backstop with a 48.4 caught stealing percentage,12against the basestealers of Claflin, as the Panthers have stolen an eye-popping 127 bases while only being thrown out 17 times in in 2016.

FLASHING LEATHER: UWF enters the tournament with the field's best fielding percentage at .968... To end the regular season, UWF went errorless in seven of its last nine games... The Argos have posted 17 error-free games this season.

GSC DOMINANCE: UWF posted a program record 24 conference wins to claim the Gulf South Conference regular season title... The 24 conference wins also puts the 2016 team in a tie for third most in GSC history.

HOMECOMING: 14 players of UWF's 31-man roster are from within about an hour drive of Tampa... Orlando natives include Alex Greene, Nic Strasser, Matt Sullivan, and Casey Crawford... Four players call Lakeland their hometown, including Cole Crowder, Robert Lopez and the Brown brothers, Colby and Troy... Closer Steve McClellan calls Windermere home, catcher Kyle Hamner is from Maitland, relief pitchers Josh McLaney and Jarrod Petree are from Laurel Hill and Apopka, respectively... First baseman Justin Ambrosino is from Brandon and catcher Ben Emery is from Duneidin.

DOWN SOUTH: To no surprise, the South Region features one of the toughest across all of NCAA Division II with four NCBWA top 25 teams... The South Region has accounted for eight of the last 12 NCAA Division II National Championships and Tampa, West Florida and Lynn have all hoisted the national championship crown since 2009... The South Central Region is the only other region in the NCAA DII Tournament to have four nationally ranked teams.

TOUGH ROAD TO CARY: The seven teams in the South Regional have combined for a 229-113 (.670) record this season... The regional's top four seeds, Tampa, UWF, Nova Southeastern and Delta State are all among the top 30 winningest teams in all of Division II from 2010-2015.

ROAD WARRIORS: UWF has posted an impressive 18-6 record when away from Jim Spooner Field this season, an eye-catching mark considering the Argonauts posted an unimpressive 5-13 record in road games last year... The 18 wins is the most road wins in a single season in program history... In 2016, UWF is batting .326 as a team in road games, led by Kyle Hamner (.370), Alex Greene (.367), Justin Ambrosino (.360), Jean Figueroa (.357), Ladeavon Matthews (.356) and Jimmy Redovian (.351)... JT Granat owns a 2.72 ERA in road games this year, while Jarrod Petree and Steve McClellan lead the bullpen with ERA's of 0.47 and 0.69, respectively... UWF is hitting .342 as a team with runners in scoring position on the road... Kyle Hamner currently rides a 15-game hitting streak in road games, while Justin Ambrosino owns a 10-game streak in away contests.

FIRST FOR EVERYTHING: In his 146th career game, Alex Greene hit his first career home run in the opening round of the GSC Tournament against Lee - a grand slam that put UWF up 7-1... The slam also gave the senior shortstop his first career four-RBI game... Justin Ambrosino would later follow with a grand slam of his own, which marked as his first career home run with the Argonauts while also giving him his first four-RBI game of the year.

CLOSING THE DOOR: UWF is a perfect 20-0 when leading after seven innings in 2016... UWF sees a slight spike in offensive production in the later stages, batting .311 as a team in the seventh inning and beyond... On the otherside of the ball, UWF owns a strong 2.34 earned run average in the seventh inning and later... UWF has been able to make a mark on relief pitchers in 2016, as opposing relief pitchers own a 5.70 ERA against UWF while the Argonaut lineup is hitting .322 against relief pitchers. 

VS. THE FIELD: West Florida has played 10 games against teams appearing in the South Regional, owning a 5-5 record in those contests... Kyle Hamner leads the team with a .410 batting average in the contests... Ladeavon Matthews is hitting .300 in those 10 games with a team-high seven RBI... JT Granat has a 0.98 ERA in three starts against those teams, while Jarrod Petree has not allowed a run against those opponents in 9.0 relief innings while holding eventual 2016 South Regional participants to a .167 batting average.

RANKINGS UPDATE: UWF saw No. 10 national rankings in by both Perfect Game USA and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Assocation... The No. 10 spot is the highest UWF has seen this year by NCBWA, while the Argos fell just one spot from its No. 9 spot in Perfect Game's ranking last week... Collegiate Baseball Newspaper has the Argos No. 16 nationally... NCBWA's regional rankings were in agreement with the NCAA regional rankings, having UWF at No. 2 in the South Region.

THE 'PEN IS MIGHTIER: UWF's bullpen has compiled a 12-5 record with an astounding 2.41 ERA in 164 innings of work in 2016... UWF relief pitchers have held opposing hitters to a .238 batting average and have allowed just 33 extra-base hits (one per five innings pitched) on the season... UWF has five pitchers with ERA's under 2.00 when pitching in relief situations... Pitchers in a set-up situation in the eighth inning have particularly thrived well, as the team owns a 1.00 ERA in the eighth inning and hold opposing hitters to a .206 batting average.

RIGHT OUT THE GATE: UWF has thrived offensively, but struggled on the mound in the first inning during the 2016 season having scored 43 first-inning runs but allowing 30 first-inning runs... The 30 first inning runs allowed is by far the most of any inning in the 2016 season... UWF is 15-5 when scoring in the first inning this year... The Argolineup is hitting .343 in the first inning, led by Justin Ambrosino who is hitting .481 in the first inning... On the flipside, UWF arms have an uncharacteristic 4.78 ERA in the first inning, where no other inning the team has an ERA north of 3.67.

YOUTH MOVEMENT: Eight freshmen and sophomores have seen playing time in 2016 and have played a major role in the team's 2016 success... Offensively, freshmen Robert Lopez and Matt Sullivan and sophomores Nick Kerkmann and Nic Strasser have combined for a .277 batting average, 16 home runs and 86 RBI... The underclassmen's 16 long balls accounts for nearly 50% of the team's total (33)... Four freshmen pitchers have seen action for UWF this season, including Gray Dorsey, Garrett Peek, Cole Crowder and Troy Brown... Together, the quad has thrown 68.2 innings this season and own a 2.77 ERA with 63 strikeouts.

ON A STREAK: With Robert Lopez becoming the fourth UWF player in 2016 to post a 10-game hitting streak, it marks the first time since 2010 that the Argonauts have had four different players have a 10-game hitting streak or longer in the same season... Kyle Hamner posted a 22-game hitting streak - the second longest streak in program history - earlier this season, while Alex Greene had a 14-game streak and Ladeavon Matthews had a 10-game streak.

RISP-Y BUSINESS: The Argonauts are hitting .325 as a team with runners in scoring position in 2016... Justin Ambrosino leads the team with an eye-catching .444 average with runners in scoring position, while Alex Greene, Kyle Hamner, Nick Kerkmann and Robert Lopez are hitting .375, .382, .353 and .367, respectively.

SOUTH REGION/NATIONAL STAT LEADERS: UWF enters the tournament with a 2.94 ERA, the best in the South Region and the fourth best in the country... UWF's six shutouts on the year is the most in the Region and the 15th most in DII... UWF leads the country in both strikeout-to walk ratio (4.23) and walks allowed per nine innings (1.81)... UWF's 1.20 WHIP is the best in the region and eighth best in DII... Steve McClellan's nine saves leads the region and stands 18th nationally... Kyle Hamner remains the toughest player in DII to strikeout at one strikeout per 53.3 at bats... Walker O'Connor's 1.25 walks allowed per nine innings is the best in the region and 18th best in DII.

PERFECT DOZEN: UWF posted a 12-game winning streak from March 19 - April 9, its longest since a 22-game streak in 2011... Justin Ambrosino led the team with a .471 batting average during that streak... Jean Figueroa led the team with three home runs and 11 RBI during the streak... Robert Lopez led the team in slugging and on base percentage at .700 and .514. respectively... Jarrod Petree led the bullpen with a 0.84 ERA over five appearances and 10.2 innings pitched, while JT Granat led the rotation with a 0.49 ERA over three starts... All three weekend starters, Walker O'Connor, Brandon Nagem and Granat, posted perfect 3-0 records during the streak... West Florida batted .348 as a team while holding opponents to a .231 average... UWF posted a strong 2.29 ERA while its opponents were tagged for a 7.21 ERA during the streak.

SUSTAINABLE SUCCESS: With 34 wins so far in 2016, UWF extended its streak of 30-win seasons to eight, lengthens the longest active streak in the GSC... West Florida has now made five of the last seven South Regional tournaments, while appearing in eight straight GSC Tournaments.
To stay updated on the UWF baseball team, follow the team on Twitter @UWF_Baseball. For information on all UWF Athletics, visit GoArgos.com.