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PENSACOLA, Fla. – The University of West Florida baseball team takes its seven-game winning streak into a Gulf South Conference showdown with Christian Brothers this weekend. The three-game set begins with a doubleheader tomorrow, Saturday, March 26 at 2:00 p.m. and concludes with a single game on Monday at 1:00 p.m. Jarrod Petree, Trace Penton and Jared Gonzalez are UWF's probable pitchers for this weekend against the Bucs.
 
LUCKY NO. 7: The Argonauts are currently on a seven-game winning streak, good for the longest of the 2017 season and the longest active streak in the GSC... The Argonauts are hitting .310 as a team while the pitching staff owns a 3.52 ERA over the stretch... Nick Kerkmann leads the team in hitting over those seven games with a .500 batting average....  Ladeavon  Matthews and Justin Ambrosino each have nine RBI during the stretch to lead the team... Starters Jared Gonzalez and Jackson Smith have impressed during the streak, owning ERA's of 2.08 and 2.70, respectively... Out of the bullpen, Brian Browning has allowed no runs and just two hits over three appearances and 7.2 innings... Browning also owns a .080 opponent batting average over that stretch... Jared Middleton (5.2 IP, two appearances) and JT Granat (4 IP, three appearances, .083 opponent batting average) have also held opponents scoreless during the winning streak.
 
2016 vs. 2017: Despite what was a rough start for the team in 2017, the Argonauts heading into the Christian Brothers last season owned a 16-11 record -- one game worse than the team's current record of 17-10... Through 27 games, West Florida produced much better in the first half of 2017 than 2016, besting last year's first half mark in batting average (.292 - .287), runs scored (174 - 140), total hits (262-259), runs batted in (146 - 129), slugging percentage (.401 - .387), on-base percentage (.369 - .360) and stolen bases (48-26)... West Florida's fielding percentage of .962 is a just a hair better than last year's mark after 27 games of .961. 
 
EIGHT IN A ROW VS. SPRING HILL: West Florida extended its winning streak when playing Spring Hill to eight after a 7-5 win against the Badgers on Wednesday... UWF has not lost to SHC since Feb. 11, 2015... Justin Ambrosino hit his seventh home run of the year and his third against Spring Hill in 2017 in Wednesday's win... Colby Brown went 2-for-4 with 2 RBI at the plate, while Jackson Smith turned in a strong five-inning start with a season-high six strikeouts.
 
A WILD WEEKEND AT WEST GEORGIA: West Florida had two extra-inning victories (7-6 in 11 innings, 6-5 in 10 innings) before dominating West Georgia 11-1 in the series finale... It was the first time since 2011 that UWF has swept a three-game series against UWG... Nick Kerkmann led the team in hitting, going 5-for-8 in the series  for  a .625 batting average... Nic Strasser hit .417 while  Ladeavon  Matthews powered the offense with three home runs and five RBI to go along with a .357 average... UWF hit .291 for the weekend and held UWG to a .259 clip.
 
KIEFER CLOSING IN: With 73 career stolen bases, Chase Kiefer is just four swipes away from tying Greg Pron's career record of 77... Kiefer has stolen at least one base in 13 of 27 games this year and the team is 10-3 when he records a stolen base in the game... The team is also 3-0 when he steals multiple bases in one game and most recently accomplished that in UWF's 6-5 win over West Georgia in the middle game of last weekend's series... Kiefer is also 10 stolen bases shy of cracking the GSC's top 10 career stolen base leaders.
 
MATTHEWS NAMED GSC POTW (3/21):  Ladeavon  Matthews became the first UWF player to win GSC Player of the Week honors after hitting .381 in five games against Embry-Riddle and West Georgia... He hit .500 with runners on base, and his three home runs, six RBI, 18 total bases and .857 slugging percentage last week all led the team.... Matthews reached base in 11 of 24 plate appearances last week.
 
FORMER ARGONAUTS SET FOR PRO BALL: Ledarious Clark (2015), Jordan DeLorenzo (2012-2014) and Brian Ellington (2012) are about to continue their professional careers in 2017... Clark, UWF's most recent draftee, hit .242 with a team-high 12 home runs and 34 RBI for the Hickory Crawdads (Texas Rangers - A)... Clark also finished third on the team with 25 stolen bases... DeLorenzo posted a 2.90 ERA for the State College Spikes (St. Louis Cardinals - Short-Season A) in 2016... DeLorenzo collected 38 strikeouts in 31 innings last year... Ellington, who has jumped between AAA and the majors with the Miami Marlins over the past two seasons, owns a 2.64 ERA in the big leagues over 58 innings pitched in his career.
 
AMBRO'S CURRENT PACE: Over the past five seasons UWF has averaged 51 games played per season, and if UWF is to meet that average in 2017, senior first baseman Justin Ambrosino is on pace for one of the best offensive seasons in UWF history... With seven home runs and 35 RBI through 27 games, Ambrosino is on pace for 13 home runs and 66 RBI... 13 home runs  has  only been done once in UWF history (Brett Anderson - 1992) and 66 RBI would be the  second most  for a single season at UWF.
 
DOMINANCE AGAINST CBU: UWF is 13-1 all-time against Christian Brothers and has won each of its last 12 meetings with the Bucs... In the all-time series that dates back to 2012, UWF has outscored CBU 109-26 for an average score of 7.8 - 1.9... West Florida scored more runs in last year's three-game series (29) than CBU has scored in the five-year all-time series (26)... West Florida has shutout CBU four times in its history and  have  held the Bucs to three or  less  runs in 12 of the14 meetings. 
 
PENTON NAMED GSC FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK (3/14): Trace Penton turned in a team season-high eight innings pitched in a 6-1 setback on March 11 against UAH, allowing no runs on just two hits. Penton arrived in the game with two runners on base and no outs in the second  inning,  and needed just three pitches to get out of the inning... Penton needed just 73 pitches over the course of his eight-inning performance... The Cantonment native held a team-best 1.02 ERA and was on a streak of 15 consecutive innings without allowing an earned run when he won the weekly honor. 
 
NEW LOOK TO THE ROTATION: After last weekend's sweep of West Georgia, head coach Mike Jeffcoat has decided to keep the same starting rotation this weekend against Christian Brothers. Jarrod Petree and Trace Penton will start game one and two, respectively of Sunday's doubleheader and Jared Gonzalez will start in the series finale on Monday... All three starters have had a very strong 2017 so far and the three have combined for a 6-1 record, 2.91  ERA  and .219 opponent batting average... The trio also owns a 2.85 strikeout-to-walk ratio and is averaging just 1.25 extra base hits allowed per nine innings pitched.
 
OUR BULLPEN IS VERY GOOD: With a 2.09 ERA in conference play this season and a 2.10 ERA in the team's last 10 games, the bullpen has proven to be a major strength for UWF at the midway point of the regular season... Five different players have recorded a save for the Argos this season, making it the first time since the 2013 season that has happened... UWF's bullpen owns a 3.36 ERA on the season and the UWF bats have tagged opposing relievers for a 6.40 ERA this year... On the season, UWF owns a 2.65 ERA as a team in innings 6-9. 
 
AWAY FROM THE SPOON: Although having a strong tradition of being a team that plays well at home, UWF has thrived on the road each of the past two seasons...UWF currently has a 10-3 road record and a seven-game road winning streak... Nick Kerkmann leads the team with a .480 average in road games this year... He is followed by Chase Kiefer (.365) and Nic Strasser (.364) for the team's top three spots... Justin Ambrosino leads the team with 20 RBI in road games this year... Other players with double-digit RBI totals in road games this year include Chase Kiefer (12) and Brandon Harmon (10).
 
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