CARROLLTON, Ga. – The University of West Florida baseball team needed extra innings to win Sunday's first game but used that momentum into the second game to complete the sweep of West Georgia and extend its winning streak to six.
Matt Sullivan's RBI single in the 10
th inning of the first game proved to be the difference in a 6-5 win before
Jared Gonzalez hurled a complete game and both
Ladeavon Matthews and
Robert Lopez homered to push the Argos to a 11-1 win in the series finale.
"I think our team really made a turn last Sunday when everybody got involved," said head coach
Mike Jeffcoat. "That really carried through the week and into Embry-Riddle. We came out in this series with the same energy."
Game 1: West Florida 6, West Georgia 5 (10)
UWF (16-10, 9-6 GSC) broke a scoreless tie in the fourth with a three-run inning featuring RBIs from
Nick Kerkmann and
Robert Lopez.
West Georgia (10-15, 4-11 GSC) responded to that with a pair of runs in the fourth and a trio of two-out runs in the sixth to take a 6-2 lead.
Trace Penton, who started his outing retiring each of the first nine batters he faced, threw six innings and allowed five runs on eight hits. Penton recorded a career-high five strikeouts and allowed just four hits in his first five innings of work.
Penton saw his streak of 18 consecutive innings without allowing a run come to a close after UWG posted a pair of runs in the fourth.
Justin Ambrosino cut UWF's lead to just 5-4 with a sacrifice fly scoring
Chase Kiefer in the eighth.
Just two outs away from suffering defeat,
Nic Strasser gave the Argos the push it needed with a one-out solo home run knotting the game at 5-5.
Jared Middleton tossed 2.1 innings of shutout ball in relief of Penton. Middleton extended his streak of consecutive innings without allowing an earned run to 12.1 innings after his performance.
Middleton's performance allowed for UWF to take a 6-5 early in extra innings with
Matt Sullivan recording a one-out RBI single in the top of the 10
th.
West Georgia made things interesting in the home half of the 10
th by getting into a bases-loaded, one-out situation.
JT Granat notched his second win of the season after striking out Cade Marlowe before forcing Artemis Kadkhodaian to pop out to Lopez to end the game.
Seven of nine Argonauts recorded at least one hit in the contest.
Matt Sullivan and
Nick Kerkmann each had two hits to lead the team, and five different players recorded one RBI in the game.
Chase Kiefer reached base twice from the leadoff spot and scored a run while recording a pair of stolen bases.
Game 2: West Florida 11, West Georgia 1
UWF scored nine unanswered runs to end the contest and used a complete game effort from
Jared Gonzalez to secure its widest margin victory to date.
The Argos opened the scoring with back-to-back RBI doubles in the first, coming off the bats of
Justin Ambrosino and
Nick Kerkmann.
Gonzalez's one hiccup in the contest came in the second, but after allowing a run, the righty was able to limit the damage and induce a 6-4-3 double play in a bases-loaded, no-out situation.
Ladeavon Matthews hit his third home run of the series in the fourth, providing UWF with an additional two runs to make it a 5-1 UWF advantage.
The Argos added a pair of runs in the sixth and built its lead to 10 with a four-run seventh inning highlighted by
Robert Lopez's third home run of the season.
Gonzalez finished his day with a season-high seven innings pitched, and allowed just one run on six hits with three strike outs and no walks. He needed just 97 pitches to navigate through his complete game effort.
The Argos had four players with multi-hit showings, including Matthews, Lopez, Kerkmann and Ambrosino. Lopez and Matthews led the team with a pair of RBI each, while eight of nine starters recorded at least one hit in the night cap.
Chase Kiefer recorded his third stolen base of the day, giving the redshirt senior 74 for his career. He is just three shy of the program's career stolen base record of 77 held by Greg Pron and is second in the GSC with 16 on the season.
West Florida, now in a tie for fourth place in the GSC, welcomes Spring Hill for a midweek contest on Wednesday. The Argos will continue conference play next weekend with a three-game home series against Christian Brothers.
