FULL PDF NOTES
VIDEO
STATS
 
PENSACOLA, Fla. – The University of West Florida softball team follows a strong opening weekend at the Gulf Coast Invitational with a trip to Columbus, Georgia, for the Cougar Classic. West Florida will face Lander and Columbus State twice each in the two-day tournament, which begins on Saturday, February 11.
 
UWF faces Lander at 11:30 am ET and Columbus State at 4:30 pm ET on Saturday, before playing LU at 11 am ET on Sunday morning and CSU at 3 pm ET that afternoon. Links to live stats and video will be available on GoArgos.com.
 
Recapping the GCI

• West Florida went an impressive 4-1 against tough competition at the Gulf Coast Invitational in Gulf Shores, Alabama, over last weekend. With wins over SIAC opponents Miles and Tuskegee to start and end the tournament, UWF defeated Rollins 11-10 and no-hit No. 22 Missouri-St. Louis 9-0, while falling in a battle to No. 8 North Georgia.
• All three UWF pitchers played a part in a no-hitter, as Becca Taylor and Taylor Rolison combined to shut down Miles, and junior Sarah Maloney held UMSL hitless while striking out nine batters and earned GSC Pitcher of the Week honors for her performance.
• West Florida hit .400 as a team, led by Meghan Toney (.692, 9 hits), Rhiannon Sassman (.563, 2 home runs, 9 RBI) and Kathleen Smiley (.471, 2 home runs).

 
A Look at Lander and CSU

• UWF is 0-1 all-time against Lander, falling 3-2 in 2013, and 7-3 against Columbus State, which includes a 3-1 mark in the past two seasons.
• CSU stands at 3-1 after playing GSC opponents in the 2017 PBC-GSC Softball Showdown last week. The Lady Cougars fell to Shorter 7-2, but took wins over West Alabama, Lee, and Union.
• Lander stands at 0-2 for the year after being swept by Limestone on Wednesday. UWF and the Bearcats had a few similar opponents last year, in Montevallo, Flagler, Columbus State and Young Harris. LU went a combined 4-7, and UWF went 5-1.

 
Maloney, Pitcher of the Week

• West Florida junior Sarah Maloney earned the first weekly Gulf South Conference honor for UWF this year, taking the league's pitcher of the week nod for the week of February 7. It is the first such honor of her UWF career.
• Maloney shut down a Missouri-St. Louis offense that averaged more than six runs per game in its other five games over the season's opening weekend, striking out nine Tritons over five innings.
• After a weekend of play, Maloney leads the GSC in ERA (0.00), opponents batting average (.000) and strikeouts per seven innings (12.6).
• Despite throwing just five innings, she ranks second in the conference in strikeouts looking and sixth in total strikeouts.

 
We Had Another No-Hitter Too

• UWF's first no-hitter of the season actually came two days before, when senior Becca Taylor and freshman Taylor Rolison combined to hold Miles without a hit in the season-opener. It was the first no-hitter for UWF since 2013, when Taylor and Rebecca Hein threw a combined perfect game against Miles in March.
• Taylor got the start and cruised through two perfect innings, with two groundouts and four strikeouts. The preseason All-Gulf South Conference selection needed just 18 pitches to get through her two innings, and she threw 15 strikes.
• Rolison's journey to finish off the Bears started off a little more rocky, but the freshman ultimately had no trouble. The Crestview, Florida, native walked the second batter she faced but quickly settled in and retired the final eight. She was at her best against the last four batters she saw, totaling four consecutive strikeouts.

 
Since We Last Played Lander

• UWF will face Lander twice this weekend in Columbus, Georgia, despite facing the Bearcats just once before: on February 24, 2013. A lot has happened in the nearly four years since then, so let's have a quick look at some highlights.
• In UWF athletics, the men's tennis team won the 2014 NCAA DII National Championship, led by head coach Derrick Racine, 2014 ITA DII Men's National Senior Player of the Year Bruno Savi, and now-senior Alex Peyrot, who was named an All-American in his freshman campaign.
• The Argonauts added two individual national championships from the UWF swimming and diving team in the spring of 2016, in Monica Amaral and Theresa Michalak. Amaral took the 1-meter and 3-meter diving crowns at the NCAA Championships, while Michalak won the 100 Breast. Michalak posted a DII national record in the 100 Breast (1:00.62) in the fall of 2016, as well.
• The University of West Florida has won 89 conference championships (87 Gulf South Conference, 2 New South Intercollegiate Swim Conference) in its history, and 22 have come since that cold February afternoon in 2013.

 
Oh Dang, Meghan Toney

• UWF second baseman Meghan Toney hit a very impressive .692 over the season's opening weekend with a team high 9 hits. That mark puts her at the top of the Gulf South Conference leaderboard after five games, as does her .750 on-base percentage.
• In addition to her efforts with the bat, Toney also moved into the UWF record books by being hit by a pitch for the 10th time in her career. That ranks her 10th in program history in times hit by pitch.

 
Sass, Man

• 2016 NFCA first team All-American Rhiannon Sassman took no time getting into a groove offensively this year, hitting .563 after a weekend of play. She leads the team in hits (9), runs (8), slugging (1.063), walks (4), RBI (9) and home runs (2).
• Sassman began the weekend with a two-hit, three-RBI game against Miles and went 3-5 with four RBI against Rollins a day later. She also had a 3-3 day with a home run against No. 22 Missouri-St. Louis.

 
These Newcomers

• Every player on the UWF roster saw some playing time at the Gulf Coast Invitational, and a handful of newcomers stood out over West Florida's five games.
• Tiona Hill started at third base in all five games, hitting .429 and slugging better than .700 across 14 at-bats. The junior had multi-hit games against Miles and Missouri-St. Louis, with a double against Rollins and a home run against UMSL. She scored at least one run in all five games.
• Freshman and Navarre, Florida, native Callan Taylor served as the DP and got starts in all five games. She wrapped up the weekend with a .286 average and four RBI. She started the weekend with an RBI single in her first career at-bat and ended the weekend with a hit against Tuskegee.

• Taylor Rolison had an up-and-down weekend, starting with three hitless innings and four strikeouts in UWF's no-hitter against Miles in the season-opener. The rookie struggled a bit against Rollins but turned things around against Tuskegee, with five strikeouts and only two hits allowed in a complete game shutout.
• Baleigh Boltz made the most of her starting spot against Tuskegee on Sunday afternoon, going 3-for-3 with two runs and an RBI. She began that game with a single and soon came around to score on a wild pitch as a result of some heads-up baserunning. She tacked on an RBI with a single in the 3rd inning, and she scored the walkoff run in the 8-0, five-inning win after a single in the bottom of the fifth.