PENSACOLA, Fla. – The University of West Florida softball team split a doubleheader with Valdosta State on Saturday, following up a 12-5 loss with a dominant 6-0 win behind a five-run second inning and a complete game shutout from Sarah Maloney in the circle. The Argonauts are now 28-18 and have a 17-13 Gulf South Conference record, good for sixth in the league.
 
Maloney turned in her first complete game shutout of the year and struck out four batters over seven innings, while allowing just three hits. West Florida hit .293 as a team on Saturday with seven extra-base hits – all of which were doubles. Rachel Wright, Meghan Toney and Jibrasha Moore each had three hits to lead the team.
 
Toney and Moore each picked up at least one hit in each half of the doubleheader, stretching their hitting streaks to seven games.
 
Game 1: UWF 5, VSU 12
West Florida struggled to get going in Game 1, falling behind 7-0 after four innings, which included a four-run fourth from the Blazers. But Toney and Kathleen Smiley cut into the VSU lead in the bottom of the fourth, with Toney singling through the left side to score Wright and Tiona Hill and Smiley getting hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to make it 7-3. The RBI for Smiley was the 100th of her career.
 
Valdosta State would not be caught though, scoring two in the fifth and sixth and a final run in the seventh, while UWF scratched across two more runs, each on an RBI double by Wright.
 
Wright had her second three-hit game of the year in Game 1, giving her nine multi-hit games for the season.
 
Game 2: UWF 6, VSU 0
Maloney was in total control on Saturday, never letting more than one batter reach base in any inning. She allowed only three hits and walked two batters while striking out four in the complete game shutout. The win was Maloney's 30th for UWF and she improved to 8-4 on the year, while moving up to fourth in the Gulf South Conference in ERA (2.09), opponent batting average (.211), and strikeouts (95).
 
West Florida pounced on VSU starter Kathryn Carter almost immediately, scoring four runs on three hits and a hit by pitch in Carter's inning of work that stretched into the second inning. UWF also added another in the second against reliever Avery Lamb.
 
Smiley started the five-run second inning with a double and she scored on a double down the right field line by Hill, giving UWF the 1-0 lead. Mika Garcia added to the lead when she got hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, and Rachel Wright hit a blooper into shallow right-center field to score Hill and stretch the lead to 3-0.
 
Moore then hit her first infield single of the day, scoring Ashley McNally, and Toney doubled to bring in Wright and cap off the second inning.
 
Maloney dominated the rest of the way, and UWF added a final run in the sixth when Wright got into a rundown and advanced home on a wild throw from VSU, stretching the lead to the final 6-0.
 
UWF wraps up the regular season and goes for the series win tomorrow at 1 pm. There will be a Senior Day ceremony celebrating the careers of Tiona Hill, Sarah Maloney and Meghan Toney immediately after the game.