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PENSACOLA, Fla. – Claflin struck first, but the 10th-ranked and top-seeded University of West Florida softball team bounced back and took a 5-2 win over the Lady Panthers in the First Round of the NCAA South 1 Regional on Thursday afternoon. Becca Taylor earned her 25th win of the season, a mark that tops the Gulf South Conference and the South Region and ranks 10th in all of Division II.
 
The win puts UWF at 41-13 on the year and moves the Argonauts into the second round of the regional, where they will face 5-seed Valdosta State at 10 am on Friday.
 
UWF picked up only two hits on Claflin starter Tiaria Norman, but the Argonauts worked with six walks and three errors from the Lady Panthers to score five runs. West Florida has now scored at least five runs in 34 games this year, and the Argos are 33-1 in those games.
 
Taylor had a bit of a rocky start in the first, as fellow All-South Region first teamer Chelsea Hall hit a leadoff home run to give Claflin a quick 1-0 lead. But the senior from Panama City worked past a single from Lakaylin Lee and retired the next eight batters she faced, with five groundouts and a strikeout.
 
UWF jumped on Claflin starter Tiaria Norman in the third, with a leadoff walk from Rachel Wright and a bunt from Jacquelynne Poling that led to a throwing error from Claflin's Nyesha Arnold. With two runners in scoring position, Caitlin Steel singled up the middle to score Wright and even the score at 1-1.
 
Steel took advantage of the throw in from Hall in center field and made her way to second, when a dropped ball from KaShaira Givens on an attempt to get Steel at second let the UWF backstop slide in safely and allowed Poling to come around for a second run.
 
That error also put Steel on third base, and a sacrifice fly from Jacey Castro brought her in just a batter later, giving UWF the 3-1 lead.
 
Shaquailla German led off the fourth with a single for Claflin, but Taylor got Norman to pop out to Rhiannon Sassman at short and got Arnold to ground into a 5-4-3 double play to end any threat.
 
West Florida kept the momentum going in the bottom half, picking up two more runs after a leadoff double from Tiona Hill. Callan Taylor followed with a walk, and after a grounder from Poling moved the pair into scoring position, Hill and Taylor scored on a dropped fly ball in right field that was hit by Steel, making the score 5-1 UWF.
 
Claflin picked up another run in the fifth, when Chelsea Hall came around to score after a groundball, but Taylor cruised to the end and retired the final seven batters she saw. The Lady Panthers added just four hits in Taylor's final six innings of work.
 
This was the 21st time Taylor has allowed two or fewer runs in a start, and the 32nd time UWF has allowed no more than two runs in a game. UWF is 31-1 in those contests.
 
West Florida will play 5-seed Valdosta State at 10 am on Friday at the UWF Softball Complex.