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PENSACOLA, Fla. – The University of West Florida softball team brings a four-game winning streak into the upcoming weekend series against No. 14 Alabama Huntsville, after sweeping Barry and Nova Southeastern on Tuesday and Wednesday.
 
The Saturday doubleheader will begin at 1 pm, as will the series finale on Sunday. All three games in the series will feature live stats and live video, and links for those can be found at GoArgos.com.
 
About Alabama Huntsville
-       No. 14 Alabama Huntsville is one of the strongest programs in the history of the Gulf South Conference and the team has showed no different this year, bringing a 17-6 record to the UWF Softball Complex.
-       The Chargers have defeated a handful of quality opponents, including No. 4 North Georgia, Missouri-St. Louis, and West Georgia. UWF and UAH have matched up against similar opponents nine times this year. UWF has gone 8-1 and the Chargers are 7-2 in those games.
-       With such a strong record and program history, one might expect UAH to bring several excellent players to the field on Saturday and Sunday — and one would be correct. Kaitlyn Bannister was a finalist for last year's national player of the year honor and was an NFCA First Team All-American, like UWF's Rhiannon Sassman. She's hitting .553 with nine doubles, five home runs, nine walks and just one strikeout so far. Catcher Taylor Wascavage was a second team All-GSC selection, and Haley Thompson has come along as one of the top offensive threats in the league.
-       UAH is not too shabby in the circle, either. Tyler Harrison has a 1.28 ERA over 60 innings, while GSC strikeout leader Emily Glover has allowed a .197 opponent batting average to go along with a 1.50 ERA.
 
We Swept Our Midweek Games
-       In the middle of what could be the toughest stretch of games that any team in the country will face this year, midweek doubleheader sweeps over Barry and Nova Southeastern could be just what the doctor ordered for West Florida.
-       The Argonauts held Barry and NSU to just seven total runs across four games and the pitching staff posted a 0.50 ERA. Taylor Rolison threw 5.2 innings without giving up an earned run and struck out six batters, Sarah Maloney struck out 16 batters in 10.1 innings while walking just two, and Becca Taylor put together an 8:0 strikeout-to-walk ratio in two starts.
-       It was not all pitching, however, as the UWF bats really got things going, with 21 runs and seven extra-base hits in the two series.
-       Caitlin Steel broke out of a cold streak during the week, hitting a team-best .667 with four hits. Callan Taylor hit a grand slam in Game 1 against Barry, her second career home run, and hit .500 over the two days with a team-high six RBI.  Rhiannon Sassman kept hitting and scoring, with five runs and four hits, Jacey Castro had four hits, including a double, and Tiona Hill slugged .909 over the four-game set with a double, a triple and a home run.
 
#GuardTheFork
-       While UWF struggled against Mississippi College to open the home schedule two weeks ago, the UWF Softball Complex has been a friendly place for the home team in recent years. In 2016, West Florida put together one of the best home records in the GSC, at 15-4. UWF finished the year with .789 winning percentage at "The Fork" and is 176-90 (.656) at home since 2009.
-       The pitching stood out for West Florida in Pensacola's friendly confines last year, as Argonauts posted a 1.51 ERA and allowed opponents to bat just .195.
 
Against the Lefties
-       UWF has faced just one left-handed starting pitcher this year — North Alabama's Hillary Carpenter. A southpaw will be back in the circle this weekend when UWF sees Tyler Harrison. The Argonauts scored just two runs against Harrison in two regular-season starts last season, but the team tagged her for three runs in just two innings in the GSC Tournament. That game resulted in a 9-1 UWF win in 5 innings.
-       The only lefty West Florida has faced this year is Andee Tiffee from Missouri-St. Louis, in the Gulf Coast Invitational to start the season. The Argonauts hit .250 against Tiffee, scoring twice in her three innings of work.
-       West Florida hit .262 (85-324) against southpaws in 2016, though that number might be a little misleading because of how talented those lefties were. Included in those left-handed pitchers were UNA's Carpenter (1.43 ERA, 12 shutouts) and UMSL's Hannah Perryman (Four-time NFCA All-American and the first NCAA DII player ever selected in the National Pro Fastpitch draft).
 
We Will Steal Bases If You Let Us
-       Meghan Toney has been willing to run all year and now has 12 stolen bases in 13 tries, but other Argonauts took to the basepaths in the midweek series, too.
-       Seven different Argonauts attempted a steal on Tuesday or Wednesday, with Toney and freshman Jibrasha Moore trying four times each. Jacey Castro stole twice, while Caitlin Steel, Rhiannon Sassman and Sara Spears each had one steal.