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PENSACOLA, Fla. – After starting a seven-game winning streak at home last week, the University of West Florida softball team will visit Carrollton, Georgia, for a three-game series at West Georgia. The Argonauts are 17-8 this year and took two of three from UWG at the UWF Softball Complex last season.
 
All three games in the series will feature live stats, and game times are scheduled for 1 pm ET for the Saturday doubleheader and the Sunday series finale.
 
How About West Georgia?

• West Georgia split against Georgia College on Wednesday and has stayed right around .500 for the whole year. The team brings a 6-6 conference record to the series, having taken two of three from Delta State and Lee, and going 1-2 against North Alabama and Alabama Huntsville.
• The Wolves will showcase two of the Gulf South Conference's best hitters, in Raven Smith and Marley Stowers. Smith is hitting .451 with four home runs and a .690 slugging percentage, while Stowers ranks second in the league with 8 home runs and has hit .419 this year. West Florida held Stowers to a .100 batting average in three games last year.
• In the circle, Kathryn Woody has the top ERA for the Wolves with a 2.28 in 43 innings. Woody has struck out 17 batters and walked 22 this year.
• The UWG series has been a good one for UWF since 2011, as the Argonauts have gone 14-6 against the Wolves.

 
We've Won Seven in a Row

• West Florida kicked off a seven-game winning streak last week with doubleheader sweeps over Barry and Nova Southeastern, before wrapping up the week with a sweep over No. 14 UAH. Caitlin Steel has led the team with a .533 average over the seven-game stretch, while Rhiannon Sassman has three doubles and six runs scored and Tiona Hill leads with a .684 slugging percentage.
• As a team, UWF has hit about the same as usual, with a .322 batting average, a .373 on-base percentage and a .444 team slugging percentage. The real differences have come on the bases and in the circle.
• Seventeen of UWF's 33 stolen bases this year came last week, and the Argonauts were successful in 85 percent of those tries.
• The pitching staff was lights-out over the week, with a 1.02 team ERA, four complete games and 46 strikeouts in 48 innings. Opponents hit just .206 against West Florida, with a .158 mark against freshman Taylor Rolison in her 5.2 innings worked. Becca Taylor has gone 4-0 since the streak began with a 1.12 ERA, and Sarah Maloney struck out 24 batters in 17.1 innings last week.

 
Pitcher of the Week Becca Taylor

• After going 4-0 and throwing three complete games last week, University of West Florida senior Becca Taylor was named the Gulf South Conference Pitcher of the Week on Tuesday. The Panama City, Florida, native pitched to a 1.12 ERA in 25 innings against Barry, Nova Southeastern and No. 14 Alabama Huntsville during the week, striking out 16 batters and holding opponents to a .200 batting average.
• It took Taylor just six innings to get through the UAH lineup in West Florida's 10-2 win in the series finale on Sunday. She struck out seven and did not issue a walk in the win, and she threw 12 combined innings in the midweek doubleheaders against Barry and Nova Southeastern. In those games, Taylor allowed just eight hits, struck out eight batters, had no walks and allowed only one earned run.

 
Against the Lefties

• UWF has faced two left-handed starters this year in North Alabama's Hillary Carpenter and Tyler Harrison from UAH. That streak will continue this weekend when Kathryn Woody takes the circle for West Georgia. Against Woody last year, UWF scored 10 runs and drew six walks in 9.1 innings.
• West Florida hit Harrison well last week, putting up a .321 team batting average and scoring three times against her in six innings.
• The only lefty West Florida faced this year prior to conference play this year was Andee Tiffee from UMSL, in the Gulf Coast Invitational to start the season. The Argonauts hit .250 against Tiffee, scoring twice in her three innings of relief 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).

 
Wright-ing the Ship

• Sophomore Rachel Wright saw her batting average jump 33 points in the weekend series against UAH with a pair of multi-hit games. UWF's starting center fielder went 4-for-7 in the series with a run scored, an RBI and a double.
• Wright accomplished something similar in her freshman campaign during the last month of the regular season and through the GSC Tournament. From the series against Union that started on April 2 until the end of the conference tournament on April 30, Wright boosted her batting average 31 points and hit .417 with four doubles, five home runs and 18 RBI in 18 games.

 
Caitlin Steel on a Tear

• Like Wright, UWF catcher Caitlin Steel entered on a bit of a cold streak. But the senior led West Florida with a .533 average on the week, going 8-15 with two stolen bases and watched her average go from just below .300 to .357 in a seven-game span.
• Also like Rachel Wright, Steel thrived in the month of April last year, hitting .383 with four doubles and five stolen bases. She made headlines last year by being the second-toughest strikeout in DII.

 
This is About Tiona Hill

• Third baseman Tiona Hill has established herself as a major offensive threat in the UWF lineup, slugging .571 with a team-high six doubles through the first month-and-a-half of play. 
• The junior has hit .381 over her last nine games and has been outstanding in the batter's box with two outs this year, hitting .526 (10-19).

 
We Steal Bases Now

• Meghan Toney has been willing to run all year and now has 13 stolen bases in 14 tries, but other Argonauts took to the basepaths last week, too.
• Eight different Argonauts attempted a steal during the week, and the team went 17-20 in steal tries. Toney was a perfect 5-for-5, Sara Spears and Jibrasha Moore each went 3-for-4, and Jacey Castro and Caitlin Steel were each 2-for-2.