BOX SCORE
 
PENSACOLA, Fla. – Head coach Mike Jeffcoat joined an elite category with his 400^th career win in a 12-8, come-from-behind victory against Valdosta State on Sunday afternoon.
 
Jeffcoat is the third active Gulf South Conference head coach to win 400 games and just the ninth ever in the league accomplish the feat. The 12-year head coach is 40^th among all Division II coaches in history with a .654 winning percentage heading into the season and is the 19^th winningest coach among active Division II coaches.
 
"It's nice to get 400. In my 12 years with the program I'm proud to do the program justice," said Jeffcoat. "I'm just really happy with this team, getting this victory today."
 
It was looking like Jeffcoat's 400^th win was going to have wait another weekend early on, but with Valdosta State leading 3-0, Nic Strasser shifted momentum in UWF's favor with a two-run blast over the left field fence.
 
Valdosta State built on its 3-2 lead with a four-run, two-hit bottom of the third that was helped by two Argonaut errors.
 
Walker O'Connor made his first start of the 2017 campaign, allowing eight hits and three earned runs over 2.1 innings pitched in a no decision.
 
Jarrod Petree took over pitching duties for O'Connor and shutdown Valdosta State in the longest relief outing of his career. Petree started his outing not allowing a hit to the first eight batters he faced, and earned the win after 5.2 innings pitched with three hits and one earned run let up while striking out five and walking just one.
 
"Petree came in there in the third inning and boy, he shut them down," said Jeffcoat. "We got our offense going and we really swung the bats. We executed on offense and we were able to do the things we haven't been able to do lately."
 
West Florida wasted no time in chipping away at Valdosta State's 7-2 lead, scoring four runs in the top of the fourth making it just a one-run game.
 
Casey Crawford successfully drove home a run on a sacrifice bunt and two batters later, Chase Kiefer wheeled around the bases for a triple scoring Trevor Payne. In the next at bat, Justin Ambrosino launched his fifth home run of the season to make it a 7-6 game.
 
UWF took the lead and then some in the sixth, with Brandon Harmon's 2-RBI double against his former team being the go-ahead at bat for Argos. Harmon eventually came around to score on a wild pitch to make it a 9-7 UWF lead.
 
Ambrosino drove home all of UWF's last three runs, hitting an RBI single in the sixth before ripping a 2-RBI double in the seventh.
 
VSU tacked on a run in the eighth to make it a 12-8 UWF lead. Steve McClellan pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning with a pair of strikeouts to seal the win.
 
Ambrosino tied his career-high with five RBI in a 3-for-4 day at the plate. Kiefer scored a team-high three runs, while Strasser had a 3-for-5 showing in the cleanup spot. Crawford recorded his first career multi-hit game with a 2-for-3 performance and all nine players in the Argonaut lineup recorded at least one hit.
 
West Florida continues play next weekend when it hosts North Alabama for a three-game series beginning Saturday at 1:00 p.m.
 
For information on all UWF athletics, visit GoArgos.com.