SOUTH 1 REGIONAL HOMEPAGE
 
PENSACOLA, Fla. – The University of West Florida softball team used a four-run fifth inning, a strong performance from Sarah Maloney and a game-saving catch from Rachel Wright to take a 4-3 win over 5-seed Valdosta State in the South 1 Region semifinal on Friday morning. UWF improved to 42-13 on the year and moves into the South 1 Region Championship on Saturday, where the Argos will meet Valdosta State again.
 
Maloney picked up her 13th win of the season, going 5.1 innings and allowing just four hits while striking out three Lady Blazers. That stat line alone does not do justice to how dominant the junior from Tamarac, Florida, was on Friday morning – after VSU scored a run on a single from Hayley Cruthers in the first, Maloney sat down 15 of the next 18 batters she faced and did not allow a hit until the sixth inning.
 
Tate High School graduate Rachel Wright led UWF with three hits, and her catch at the wall in the sixth inning with two outs and the bases loaded in a one-run game turned out to be a game-saver. With winds blowing slightly in from right center field, a Chelsea Canara lifted a high fly ball that moved quickly toward the left-center field fence and was nabbed when Wright climbed the wall to make the grab.
 
The day started out in a strange way for UWF, as a Thursday night coin toss decided the home and away teams and UWF served as the visitors for Friday morning.
 
The change in dugouts did not bother the UWF bats, and the Argonauts picked up 10 hits and drew three walks against VSU starter Kathryn Carter and reliever Kasie Johnson. Every UWF starter reached base at least once, and four different Argos scored a run.
 
West Florida's luck seemed to be going the wrong way early on as the first inning ended with a line shot from Baleigh Boltz going right at the glove of Cruthers at first base, and Canara snagged a hard ground ball from Jacey Castro to end a UWF scoring threat in the fourth.
 
The Argonauts' luck finally turned in the fifth, after singles from Meghan Toney, Boltz and Tiona Hill, the last of which scored Toney to tie the game at 1-1.
 
Rookie Callan Taylor, who hails from Navarre, Florida, then gapped a double into left center field to give West Florida a 3-1 lead and score Boltz and Hill. The double was Taylor's fourth of the year and it bumped her batting average up to an impressive .302 with runners on.
 
Two batters later, senior catcher Caitlin Steel singled to left center to score Taylor and give UWF a critical insurance run, wrapping up the four-run, five-hit inning.
 
Maloney got three easy groundouts in the bottom of the fifth to keep UWF's momentum going, and the inning was ended with a sliding catch and throw from Toney to Castro at first, retiring the 3-hitter Cruthers.
 
VSU picked up a pair of runs in the sixth, the first of which came on a single up the middle from Lacey Crandall that scored Taylor Hartenbach. That signaled the end of the day for Maloney, and UWF brought in senior Becca Taylor for the final 1.2 innings.
 
Haley Fowler picked up a one-out RBI single to cut the score to 4-3 in favor of UWF and put runners at second and third, but Taylor quickly settled in and got Jessica Mohl to fly out to left for the second out. A strong throw from Boltz in left field kept Haley Garrett stuck at third, and Wright followed that out with UWF's biggest play of the year on Canara's flyout to left center.
 
The drama wasn't over for UWF, however, as VSU threatened again in the seventh. Hartenbach reached on a hard-hit
grounder up the middle and Brandy Morgan drew a walk to put two runners on with just one away.
 
With Tana McDaniel at the plate, Steel blocked a ball in the dirt and threw out Hartenbach at third for the crucial second
out. After battling in an at-bat that featured four consecutive foul balls, Taylor got the better of McDaniel and earned her
fourth career save.
 
West Florida will play Valdosta State at 1 pm on Saturday at the UWF Softball Complex for the South 1 Regional Championship. Because UWF holds a 2-0 record in the tournament, the Argonauts need just one victory over the Lady Blazers on Saturday to take the title, while VSU would need two.