JACKSON, Tenn. – When Chase Kiefer finishes his UWF baseball career at the end of this season, he'll leave the program knowing he's stolen more bases than any other player who has donned an Argonaut uniform.  
 
In Saturday's doubleheader, the University of West Florida baseball team earned a 7-1 win after being shutout for the first time this season in game one, 6-0.
 
In the first game, Kiefer tied the record after stealing second in the top of the third, and in the next at-bat, stole third as part of a double steal to record his program-high 78^th career stolen base.
 
"A lot of the credit goes to the work in the weight room, and Coach Jeffcoat sort of let me be myself out there on the base paths," said Kiefer. "Speed is probably the most important asset to my game, it's just a matter of getting on base so I can use it so we can score runs."
 
Kiefer is now just four stolen bases away from cracking the Gulf South Conference's top 10 career stolen base leaders. The Pensacola Catholic HS product is seventh amongst active NCAA Division II players with 79 career steals.
 
"I'm glad my parents and sister were here; my brother was probably watching. I'm excited the record is over with so I don't have the distraction anymore, but it's definitely something when I get older I can look back on and can hang my hat on," said Kiefer.
 
"When he gets on base, our chance of scoring probably doubles," said head coach Mike Jeffcoat. "You have to have more than just speed to steal bases, you have to understand how to read pitchers, and he's one of the best we've ever had doing that. He certainly deserves to be the program's all-time steals leader."
 
Game 1: Union 6, West Florida 0
 
The Argonauts entered today having won 10-straight, but the bats were uncharacteristically quiet against Union starter JR Miller, who tossed eight innings of three-hit ball.
 
"Give their pitcher credit, he did a good job with his fastball and mixing the off-speed," said Jeffcoat. "On our side, I thought we weren't aggressive and we didn't have at-bats with as much purpose as I like to see and I challenged them on that for the second game."
 
Union posted a 2-RBI single in the second and another one in the seventh to take a 4-0 lead. Union capped the scoring with a pair unearned runs with one out in the seventh.  
 
Jarrod Petree turned in a quality start, pitching 6.1 innings and allowing three earned runs on just four Union hits. Jared Middleton kept his streak of recent success alive, pitching 1.2 innings of one-hit, shutout relief. Middleton finished his outing by retiring each of the last four batters he faced, and he extended his streak of consecutive innings without allowing an earned run to 16 innings, which dates back to Feb. 12 against Rollins.
 
Justin Ambrosino, Ladeavon Matthews, Matt Sullivan and Robert Lopez each had one hit in the contest. West Florida was held without an extra-base hit in the contest and tied its single-game season low with four hits.
 
It was just the second loss in program history against the Bulldogs, as the Argonauts finished the day with a 15-2 all-time record against Union.
 
Game 2: West Florida 7, Union 1
 
Justin Ambrosino's three-RBI performance and Brian Browning's four shutout innings of relief paved the way for UWF to salvage the second game of the series, 7-1.
 
After a gloomy offensive performance in the first game, the Argos were quick to play a different tune in the second game with a first-inning RBI from Ambrosino. Union matched that run in the home half of the first with a runner from third scoring on a wild pitch.
 
Trace Penton pitched three innings and allowed one run on two hits in his third collegiate start.
 
The Argos finished the contest scoring six unanswered runs.
 
Michael Savas hit a sacrifice fly to score Robert Lopez in top of the second to regain a lead. Ambrosino's two-out, two-RBI in the fourth capped a three-run fourth inning and built UWF's lead to 5-1.
 
Ladeavon Matthews and Chase Kiefer posted a RBI single in the sixth and seventh, respectively, to add late insurance runs.
 
Browning, who came on in relief of Penton, posted four scoreless frames to preserve UWF's lead throughout the late stages. Browning allowed just one hit and struck out four, and worked around some control issues with four walks. Browning extended his scoreless to 16.1 innings after Saturday's performance.
 
Former high school teammates at Pensacola Catholic in Kiefer and Tanner Halstead, contributed two-hit performances in the contest. Seven of nine spots in the Argonaut lineup recorded at least one hit.
 
"I thought they responded well and Brian Browning has been doing exactly what he has done for us lately with four scoreless innings out of the bullpen," said Jeffcoat. "(Justin) Ambrosino had some big RBIs, and it was a critical game to win for us to have a chance to win the series tomorrow."
 
Tomorrow's UWF-UU rubber game is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. Jared Gonzalez (3-0, 2.01 ERA) is set to take the ball for the Argonauts.
 
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