NOTES
 
STATS
vs. Shorter | vs. West Alabama | vs. Delta State
 
PENSACOLA, Fla. – The third-ranked University of West Florida softball team will begin Gulf South Conference play at the GSC Opening Weekend Festival on Saturday and Sunday in Montgomery, Alabama. UWF stands at 7-4 on the year after going 5-1 in South Florida last weekend.
 
The Argonauts will start the weekend with a game against Shorter at noon on Saturday before facing West Alabama at 2:30 pm. The weekend wraps up with a game against Delta State, which is set for a noon first pitch on Sunday.
 
Fans can follow along with all three games by clicking the live stats links above or by going to portal.stretchinternet.com/gsc and finding links there.
 
Goodness, These Freshmen
* A handful of rookies stood out for West Florida in the team's trip to South Florida last weekend, with Grace Gilbert, Mika Garcia and Ally Merrill each batting a team-best .400 (4-10) for the weekend. Among Argonauts with at least 10 at-bats for the season, those three hold the top three batting averages on the team.
* An added benefit is that each member of the trio contributed in different ways over the weekend. Gilbert had one of the best overall games of the weekend, with a 2-for-4 day at the plate with a double and a run scored against Barry, while also going the distance in the circle and earning her team-best third win of the season. She struck out three, walked just two, and did not allow an earned run in the victory. Gilbert currently ranks sixth in the Gulf South Conference in ERA (0.78), and her ERA is the best in the league among pitchers with at least 18 innings pitched.
* Merrill started the final three games of the weekend at first base and had a two-hit day with an RBI against Barry on Saturday. She also went a combined 2-4 against Nova Southeastern on Friday, with two runs, an RBI, a double and a stolen base.
* In her first career start, Garcia went 3-3 with a run scored, an RBI and a stolen base, before adding another RBI and another hit in the doubleheader against Barry on Saturday.
 
A Look at Last Week
* Pitching dominated in South Florida for UWF, as the team posted a 0.68 ERA and held Palm Beach Atlantic, Nova Southeastern and Barry to a combined .237 batting average over the 5-1 weekend.
* Sarah Maloney and Printiss both finished the road trip with a perfect 0.00 ERA, and Maloney led all UWF pitchers with a pair of wins, 18 strikeouts and a .196 opponent batting average.
* The UWF bats got moving, as well, and the Argonauts hit .282 with six doubles and a pair of home runs over the weekend.
 
That Pitching
* The UWF pitching staff ranks as one of the best in the GSC after the first two weeks of softball action around the league, with a 1.31 ERA that is the second-best in the conference.
* All four UWF pitchers hold an ERA under 2.50, and each have thrown no fewer than 10 innings.
* Sarah Maloney provided UWF's best start of the season against Nova Southeastern last Friday. Maloney earned her second win of the season by going the full seven innings, striking out a career-high 15 batters, and walking just one batter while allowing only one unearned run. She has a 1.18 ERA for the season and ranks sixth in UWF history in strikeouts per seven innings (6.25).
* Grace Gilbert leads UWF in wins (3) and appearances (6) through the first two weekends of action. She threw a complete game against Barry on Saturday and struck out three batters, while not allowing an earned run. The rookie threw 3.1 innings of one-hit ball in her collegiate debut against Nova Southeastern and followed that with two hitless innings against Tuskegee in her first college start, earning the win in each of those two games.
* Olivia Printiss, a Gulf Breeze native, has not allowed a run yet this year, and she has allowed only five hits in 10 innings of work. On Saturday, Printiss shut out Barry and struck out two while only allowing four hits. She also earned the save after going 3.0 innings and allowing just one hit against Tuskegee in West Florida's third game of the season. 
* Junior transfer Tori Perkins was dominant against Nova Southeastern, as she shut out the Sharks for six innings and struck out five batters. She saw her ERA drop nearly a full run as a result, down to 2.43 for the year. Perkins ranks in the top 10 in the GSC in innings pitched (23.0), strikeouts (16), and batters struck out looking (6).
 
Against the GSC in 2017
* UWF starts conference play on Saturday, and the Argonauts had limited trouble with GSC competition in 2017. Following a 2-7 start in league play, West Florida rattled off 17 consecutive conference wins to improve to 19-7 in the GSC and a spot at the top of the standings for the first time since 2013.
* West Florida ended up finishing second in the regular-season conference standings, and the stats show why. The Argonauts hit .307 against the league and ranked in the top five in most offensive categories, and the pitching staff was absolutely dominant. UWF ranked first in hits allowed (183) and opponent batting average (.236), and second in strikeouts (157) and ERA (2.62)
* Rhiannon Sassman ranked in the top five in the league in slugging (.685; 4th), on-base percentage (.500; 3rd), runs scored (29; 5th), doubles (10; 4th), triples (4; 1st) and walks (18; 5th) against GSC opponents.
 
We've Got Shorter First
* West Florida will start things out against Shorter, with a noon start on Saturday. The Hawks have hit .330 through their first seven games of the year, leading the team to a 4-3 record.
* Shorter is coming off a 2-0 weekend at the Charger Chillout in Huntsville, where the team defeated No. 14 Missouri-St. Louis 4-0 and topping Ohio Dominican 7-4. The rest of the results have been a mixed bag for Shorter so far. The team took a 9-8 win over No. 23 Saint Leo at the Gulf Coast Invitational but fell to Spring Hill, Nova Southeastern and No. 25 Lenoir-Rhyne during the same weekend.
* Preseason All-GSC outfielder Tiffany Holland has hit .458 with 11 runs scored through the first two weeks of play.
* West Florida is just 6-15 all-time against Shorter, but UWF holds a 6-3 record against the Hawks since 2016. In that time, the Argonauts have outscored Shorter 35-27.
 
Taming the Tigers
* West Alabama has also had mixed results early on this year, defeating No. 25 Lenoir-Rhyne and Rollins at the Gulf Coast Invitational, while falling 4-5 to Eckerd and 0-8 to Young Harris.
* Audrey Diekmann was a preseason all-conference pick, and she leads UWA with a .457 on-base percentage and 5 runs scored so far.
* The West Alabama offense has ranked near the bottom of the league standings so far. Tiger batters have hit just .256 with a .332 slugging percentage through 11 games.
* UWF has won seven in a row against West Alabama and holds a 29-13 overall record against the Tigers, with an 11-1 record since 2014.
 
Fighting the Okra
* Delta State enters the GSC Opening Weekend Festival with a 4-6 record, and Nicole Fullilove and Taylor Johnson have been standouts in the circle. The pair has combined for a 1.62 ERA over 43 innings.
* The Argonauts are 20-8 all-time against Delta State with a 7-2 record against the Fighting Okra since 2015.