VALDOSTA, Ga. – The University of West Florida softball team fell in a doubleheader sweep to No. 6 Valdosta State on the road on Saturday. The Argonauts tallied 13 total hits in the two games, and were led by Meghan Toney, Callan Taylor and Kathleen Smiley, who had three each.
 
UWF is now 9-5 on the year with a 1-4 Gulf South Conference record.
 
Toney now has a 10-game hitting streak, and Rhiannon Sassman has still reached base in every game this year.
 
Game 1: UWF 4, VSU 7
It was an up-and-down game to start the series, and West Florida started the scoring on Saturday afternoon, as Smiley singled up the middle to score Toney and give UWF a 1-0 lead in the top of the 1st inning. VSU then scored three unanswered runs before Taylor lined a single into center field and cut the deficit to 2-3 after three frames.
 
Taylor was back at it again in UWF's two-run 5th inning, bringing in Toney with a single to right to tie it up. Taylor then came around herself on a Tiona Hill triple that gave UWF a 4-3 lead after five innings.
 
West Florida was unable to hold onto the lead after the fifth inning for the first time this year, when Hayley Cruthers brought in the first of her three RBI on the afternoon with a single up the middle to tie things at 4-4 in the bottom of the 5th.
 
VSU scored three in the 6th to give the final 7-4 score.
 
Toney, Smiley and Taylor each had two-hit games, and Taylor's two RBI in the contest marked the second multi-RBI game of her career. Toney's was the eighth multi-hit game of the year for the junior, a mark that leads the team.
 
Becca Taylor's record on the year fell to 5-3 despite a strong performance from the senior. She allowed just three earned runs across six innings and struck out seven batters.
 
Game 2: UWF 3, VSU 11
Toney, Smiley, Taylor and Hill each added a hit in the Game 2 loss, while Taylor and Hill had an RBI apiece. Hill, a junior from Clearwater, Florida, has gone 8-for-19 with four doubles and a triple since Sunday, February 12 at the Cougar Classic, and she has raised her batting average 59 points in that time.
 
Sassman scored twice, after having been hit by a pitch and scoring on a rare four-base error. The error came when VSU center fielder Taylor Hartenbach camped out in deep center field, briefly caught a high fly ball from Sassman and saw the ball bounce out of her glove and over the fence.
 
The second-inning error from VSU let UWF cut the deficit to 4-1, after the Lady Blazers started with a grand slam in the first inning to take a 4-0 lead. Taylor and Hill each singled to right field to bring in a run in the 4th inning, but VSU scored seven unanswered runs, including five in the bottom of the 4th, to take the win.
 
Taylor Rolison suffered her first loss of the season, falling to 2-1. She struck out five over 4.2 innings.
 
UWF wraps up the series with a 1 pm ET game at Steel's Diamond at Blazer Park on Sunday.