PENSACOLA, Fla. – The University of West Florida pitching staff was in total control in a doubleheader sweep over Christian Brothers on Sunday afternoon, taking 1-0 and 2-1 wins to start the series. Becca Taylor and Sarah Maloney combined to strike out 14 batters in 15 innings, while holding CBU to a .100 team batting average and just three total runs.
 
With the wins, UWF improved to 24-8 overall and 10-7 in the Gulf South Conference, and the team's winning streak has extended to 14 games.
 
Game 1 was highlighted by Jacey Castro's walk-off home run in the eighth, marking West Florida's first walk-off home run since Crystal Thompson did so against Alabama Huntsville on March 31, 2012.
 
Tiona Hill, Rachel Wright and Rhiannon Sassman each had two hits in the doubleheader, and both of Sassman's hits were doubles.
 
GAME 1: UWF 1, CBU 0 (8 innings)
Becca Taylor was dialed in on Sunday afternoon, throwing her 11th complete game and fourth shutout of the season in the eight-inning victory. The senior struck out five batters and did not walk any on the way to her Gulf South Conference-best 13th win. She forced 12 groundouts and lived in the strike zone, throwing nearly 70 percent strikes in her outing.
 
CBU's Jenna Cotter was nearly as good, and though West Florida threatened in several innings, the Argonauts struggled to string together hits against the sophomore.
 
UWF first threatened in the fourth, when Rhiannon Sassman led off the inning with a hit by pitch. After Callan Taylor moved her over with a sacrifice bunt, UWF ran out of luck as Tiona Hill hit a sharp line drive right at CBU third baseman Kylie Steagall.
 
That led to consecutive CBU innings that looked like trouble, but Taylor pitched her way out of jams each time. Abby Ferreira doubled down the left field line to lead off the fifth, but Taylor got two flyouts to left and struck out Amber Johnson to get out of any danger in the inning.
 
Taylor plunked center fielder Holly Oyhenart to start the sixth, but the outs came easy after that and Taylor retired the final nine batters she faced to end the game.
 
Sassman doubled with two outs in the sixth and Miranda Smith and Rachel Wright each recorded a single in the seventh, but UWF did not strike until Castro lifted a monster shot over the left field fence to grab the walkoff win.
 
The home run was Castro's fourth of the season.
 
GAME 2: UWF 2, CBU 1
Sarah Maloney needed just two runs of support to pick up her eighth win of the season, and that's what she got from the West Florida lineup in Game 2. Maloney struck out nine batters over seven innings, allowed just two hits and lowered her season ERA to a team-best 2.02. It was Maloney's second solo shutout of the year and her sixth complete game.
 
UWF got on the board a little more quickly in Game 2, when Sara Spears' grounder to shortstop brought in Tiona Hill to put the Argonauts ahead 1-0. Likewise, CBU struck for a run in the third to tie things up – this one coming on a bunt from Steagall that led to Holly Oyhenart coming across to score.
 
The Argonauts picked up the go-ahead run in the fifth inning after Meghan Toney scored on a sacrifice fly from catcher Jacquelynne Poling. Toney reached via hit by pitch for the fourth time this year and the 13th time in her UWF career, marking the fifth-highest total in that category in program history.
 
After the run, Maloney settled in for good and retired 13 of the final 14 batters she faced. The junior struck out more than a batter per inning for the fifth time in a start this season.
 
The series wraps up on Sunday with a single game starting at noon from the UWF Softball Complex.