PENSACOLA, Fla. – For the University of West Florida baseball team's 11 seniors, they all knew that their playing days at beloved Jim Spooner Field would conclude after this weekend's series against Lee.
 
With that extra source of motivation, West Florida swept its last doubleheader of the 2017 season, largely in thanks to standout performances from seniors Ladeavon Matthews, Walker O'Connor and Jarrod Petree.
 
Other seniors honored pregame included Chase Kiefer, Steve McClellan, Colby Brown, Justin Ambrosino, Michael Savas, Tanner Halstead, JT Granat, Walker O'Connor and Brian Browning. The group has helped UWF post a 165-81 record over the past five years and played a key role in helping UWF be just one of four teams in the Gulf South Conference to make the GSC Tournament every year since 2013.
 
"For some of them, I don't think they understand of the finality of it until later down the road," said head coach Mike Jeffcoat about Senior Day.  "It's always a sad day for me, seeing our seniors recognized and realizing how quickly time flies."
 
With the pair of wins, the Argonauts solidify a sixth-place standing heading into the GSC Tournament. Delta State clinched the rights to host the conference tournament after defeating Mississippi College on Saturday afternoon. On the flipside, the pair of losses for the Flames canceled any hopes of a GSC Tournament appearance for Lee.
 
"We had a good week of practice. We got after it and talked about trying to finish on a positive note. We needed to get some momentum going into the conference tournament," said Jeffcoat about preparation for the late stages of the season.
 
Due to tomorrow's expected forecast, UWF and Lee will begin the series finale at a new start time of 1:00 p.m. tomorrow.
 
Game 1: West Florida 13, Lee 5
 
UWF scored 13 runs on 18 hits in the game 1 victory, giving the Argonauts their second highest total of each statistic in 2017. The Argos were led by Ladeavon Matthews, who posted a career-high five hits after being placed in the No. 2 spot in the lineup for the first time as an Argonaut, and Robert Lopez, who went a perfect 4-for-4 with a double and three RBI. Nick Kerkmann contributed a 3-for-5 showing with his second home run of the year and three RBI.
 
"We swung the bats, obviously (Brian) Browning did not have his best stuff, but he kept it close enough for us to get the bats going," said Jeffcoat.
 
The Argos faced an early 2-0 hole with the Flames posting a two-run first inning, but the Argos were quickly able to fill that gap with Kerkmann and Lopez providing a RBI each to even the score.
 
The Argos built their first lead of the game in the second and third innings, with Michael Savas executing a safety squeeze bunt to score Sullivan before Kerkmann sent a solo home run into the left-field party deck in the bottom of the third.
 
Lee responded with a 2-RBI double in the fourth, but the Argonauts used a barrage of hits and a three-error bottom of the seventh to put the game out of reach.
 
Walker O'Connor posted a strong 3.2 innings of relief, allowing just one run on four hits while striking out three and walking one. Brian Browning notched his fourth win of the year with 5.1 innings of work and four runs allowed on 10 hits.
 
Game 2: West Florida 6, Lee 3
 
Once again, Ladeavon Matthews stole the show in the second half of Saturday's doubleheader – going 2-for-3 with a game-determining three-RBI double in the bottom of the fifth inning to break a 2-2 tie. Matthews finished his day going 7-for-9 with three RBI and three runs scored.
 
"I moved him (Matthews) up to the two-hole where he hasn't been all year long and we bumped everybody in the lineup a bit," said Jeffcoat. "Matthews sure had a flat swing today, he was aggressive early in the count and it paid off for him."
 
In UWF's five-run fifth inning, Matt Sullivan scored Justin Ambrosino and Chase Kiefer on a 2-RBI single to left field to tie the score at 2-2. Three batters later, Sullivan was able to come around to score on Matthews' bases-clearing double.
 
Lee made things interesting in the top of the sixth with a Drew Johnson solo home run, but the Argos were able to make up the difference in the home half with Trevor Payne's hard-hit RBI single to centerfield scoring Kiefer.
 
Trace Penton stayed a perfect 4-0 on the season with five innings of work, allowing three runs on five hits.
 
Like game one, another senior came up big out of the bullpen, this time with Jarrod Petree providing two innings of hitless relief with three strikeouts to seal UWF's win. Petree retired six of the seven batters he faced to notch his second save of the season.