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VIDEO/STATS
NCAA SUPER REGIONAL HOMEPAGE

PENSACOLA, Fla. – The 10th-ranked University of West Florida softball team will host Lee for the first NCAA South Super Regional in either program's history on Thursday, May 18 and Friday, May 19.
 
Game 1 on Thursday will begin at 4 pm CT, and Game 2 is scheduled for a 1:30 pm first pitch on Friday. If necessary, Game 3 will be at 4 pm on Friday.
 
The Super Regional is a best-of-three series, with the series winner advancing to the NCAA Championship in Salem, Virginia, from May 25-29. UWF has made it that far twice in its history – in 2000 and in 2003, before Super Regionals were in place at the Division II level.
 
The Argonauts, who stand at 43-13 overall, enter the weekend as the 1-seed in the South Region, while Lee is the 6-seed at 36-18. UWF swept Lee in Pensacola in a regular-season series, on April 29-30.
 
Tickets can be purchased at the gate. Daily passes can be purchased for $5, while seniors, youth (6-17) and college students with a valid university ID can buy tickets for $3. Children and the first 100 UWF students with a valid ID will be admitted free of charge.
 
The NCAA Tournament

• 2017 marks the 12th trip to the NCAA Tournament for UWF, and the Argonauts hold a 25-23 all-time record in tournament play.
• West Florida went 3-0 last week, taking wins against Claflin on Thursday and Valdosta State on Friday and Saturday to advance to the NCAA South Super Regional. This marks the sixth time UWF has reached the regional final, and the first time that the Argonauts have played in a Super Regional, which began at the DII level in 2009.
• Last year, UWF made the drive to Valdosta, Georgia, for the NCAA South 2 Regional, going 2-2 and taking wins against Gulf South Conference rivals Shorter and VSU. That ended a five-year NCAA Tournament drought for the Argos.
• This is the first time since 2005 that UWF has earned the 1-seed in the region, and the first time since 1998 that UWF will host a regional tournament.
• The Super Regional against Lee is a standard best-of-three series, with Game 1 on Thursday and Games 2 and 3 on Friday. The series winner will advance to the NCAA Championship in Salem, Virginia, from May 25-29.

 
Captain Clutch - Tiona Hill

• In her first year at UWF, third baseman Tiona Hill has established herself as a major offensive threat in the UWF lineup, slugging .554 with 16 doubles, 3 triples and 3 home runs. She hit .403 in UWF's 23-game winning streak.
• As strong as Hill has been during the entire year, her biggest impact has come in the postseason. The junior started her heroics in the GSC Tournament against Shorter, when she lifted a two-run single into left field to bring in Meghan Toney and Rhiannon Sassman and give UWF a walkoff win in the tournament's first round.
• She followed that act with another walkoff single on Saturday, driving a single up the middle and putting UWF on top of Valdosta State with a 7-6 victory.
• Hill's clutch hitting has not just started in the postseason, however. She is hitting .448 (13-29) with 15 RBI when UWF has runners on and two outs, .386 (22-57) when she has runners in scoring position, and .545 (6-11) with the bases loaded. Since April 1, she has hit .417 with 6 RBI in late and close situations -- after the fifth inning, with the score within two runs.
• Hill joined Boltz on the All-GSC Tournament team two weeks ago, going 3-7 with two doubles and three RBI, including the walkoff two-run single against Shorter.
• The junior is hitting .368 over the last 25 games, and she has been a model of consistency this season, with her average staying above .350 since March 18. She has also been outstanding in the batter's box with two outs this year, hitting a ridiculous .465 (20-43).

 
Rachel Wright: Postseason Legend

• The legend of Rachel Wright continued to grow on Saturday, following a three-hit contest and a game-saving catch against 5-seed Valdosta State in the South 1 Regional Semifinal. The sophomore is now batting .381 (16-42) and slugging .700 in 14 career postseason games, with 3 doubles, 3 home runs and 7 RBI.
• The legend began last year, when Wright had a four-hit game against Shorter in the opening round of the Gulf South Conference Tournament and followed that with a two-homer contest against the Hawks just two days later.
• The defensive highlight of Wright's postseason career came on Friday afternoon, when the native of nearby Cantonment, Florida, made a run for a high fly ball from Valdosta State's Chelsea Canara and climbed the left center field fence to make the grab with two outs and the bases loaded in a one-run game.

 
Another Look at Lee

• Like UWF, Lee took a walkoff win in the South 2 Region Championship to advance to this week's Super Regional, taking a 3-2 win over North Alabama. In just their second year of NCAA eligibility, the Lady Flames are also making the first Super Regional appearance in program history.
• West Florida got the best of Lee last month, sweeping a series at the UWF Softball Complex. Lee enters the weekend at 36-18 overall.
• A pair of freshmen, Taylor Moran (first team) and Abby McKinney (second team), were each D2CCA All-South Region picks for the Lady Flames. Moran leads the GSC in ERA (1.32) and saves (6), while McKinney, the team's designated player, is hitting .347 with 9 doubles and 46 RBI.

 
Boltz At A Glance

• Freshman Baleigh Boltz has taken off offensively since cracking the lineup, hitting .342 and slugging .521 in 26 starts this year. She has multiple hits in five of her last eight games, and she leads the team in batting (.462), slugging (.538), on-base percentage (.481) and hits (12) since the start of the Lee series.
• Her work in the GSC Tournament was enough to earn a spot on the All-GSC Tournament team, going 4-7 with a double, an RBI, two runs scored and a pair of two-hit games.
• Nobody has been better since the start of the West Alabama series in early April. Boltz leads UWF with a .381 average, a .619 slugging percentage and 14 RBI.
• Her second game against West Alabama on April 8 is one that will go down in the UWF record books. The rookie hit home runs in back-to-back innings and finished the game with seven RBI, becoming the first player with a multi-homer game since Rachel Wright in last year's GSC Tournament, and the first UWF player with seven RBI in a game since Jillian LaFrance in 2010.
• She has been hit by a team-high eight times, which gives her the fourth-highest total in single-season program history, matching what Rhiannon Sassman did last year.

 
In the Postseason

• UWF has a 4-1 mark in postseason play this year, following a 3-0 effort in the South 1 Regional. The Argonauts took a 5-2 win over Claflin in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday, before battling with Valdosta State to pick up back-to-back one-run wins against the Lady Blazers.
• Jacey Castro leads UWF with eight hits, 13 total bases and a .765 slugging percentage through five postseason contests, which included a four-hit game against VSU on Saturday.
• Tiona Hill's seven RBI in the postseason are a team high, and she has driven in five of those runs in games against Shorter and Valdosta State when she had walkoff hits.
• Keys to UWF's postseason success have been timely hitting and solid defense. The Argonauts have hit .304 with runners in scoring position over the last five games, with Rhiannon Sassman (.667), Tiona Hill (.571) and Baleigh Boltz (.429) leading the way.

 
At The Fork

• West Florida has gone 19-1 in the team's last 19 games at the UWF Softball Complex, dating back to a March 7 doubleheader against Barry.  The Argonauts have held opponents to just a .228 batting average and 2.4 runs per game in 27 total games at The Fork. The pitching staff has struck out 146 batters in 185 innings at home.
• Several Argos have really made The Fork feel like home this year. Jacey Castro's four-hit day against Valdosta State on Saturday gave her a team-high .376 batting average at the UWF Softball Complex this year, and Tiona Hill's .542 slugging percentage and 18 RBI lead the Argos. Callan Taylor and Rhiannon Sassman lead the team with 13 walks apiece, and Taylor's .431 on-base percentage is a team-high.
• Becca Taylor and Sarah Maloney have especially stood out at home, with a 1.88 and 1.79 ERA, respectively. Taylor has picked up 13 wins and thrown three shutouts, allowing a .240 opponent batting average and striking out 62 batters over 100 innings. Maloney has completed 6 of her 11 starts at home, with 68 strikeouts and a .207 opponent batting average in 66.1 home innings.

 
It's A Team Effort

• The UWF lineup has been particularly deep this year and has had the luxury of not needing to rely on just one player to contribute offensively.
• To this point, eight Argonauts have at least 20 RBI, seven qualified hitters are batting .300 or better, and seven players have an on-base percentage of .385 or better.
• Valdosta State and Alabama Huntsville each have six batters with 20-plus RBI, and only UAH has more qualified hitters with a .390 on-base percentage.

 
Jacey Castro Lately

• Jacey Castro's third 4-hit game of the year could not have come at a better time than Saturday's matchup with Valdosta State. The senior led off the bottom of the first inning with a home run, led off the third with a single, had an RBI double in the fourth, and led off the seventh with a single, eventually scoring the game-tying run on Tiona Hill's walkoff hit.
• Castro has found a home at the top of the lineup and is hitting .401 since moving to the leadoff spot at the beginning of the North Alabama series. In that time, she leads UWF in hits (57), home runs (6), and total bases (88). Castro leads UWF with 21 multi-hit games this season.
• On top of being one of the best leadoff hitters in the region, Castro has come through for UWF when runners on. She's hitting .400 with 29 RBI with runners in scoring position this year while slugging .567, and hitting .423 (11-26) with runners in scoring position and two outs.
• She has been even better since the West Georgia series, hitting .408 with eight doubles, a .663 slugging percentage, and a .477 OBP.
• Castro's performance at UWA was enough to bring home her first GSC Player of the Week honor, after leading UWF with seven hits and tallying two home runs in Livingston.