FLORENCE, Ala. – The University of West Florida softball team scored twice in the top of the first inning in Thursday's Gulf South Conference Tournament opener against Alabama Huntsville, but the Argonauts ultimately fell 14-6 in a loss. West Florida will face 7-seed Delta State on Friday at 10 a.m.
 
UWF used four consecutive hits in the first inning from Meghan Toney, Grace Gilbert, Kathleen Smiley and Callan Taylor to go ahead 2-0 over the Chargers early on. But the Argonaut staff struggled to slow down one of the top offenses in the country, allowing 14 runs on 12 hits and issuing 8 walks on the day.
 
Alabama Huntsville was able to erase the UWF lead with eight runs over the first two innings, scoring on six hits and three walks to take an 8-2 lead. UAH stretched it to 10-2 in the fourth inning, but UWF did not go away easily.
 
Toney led off the fifth with a single up the middle and she came around to score on a double into the right-centerfield gap by Grace Gilbert, cutting the deficit to 10-3. Tiona Hill later followed with an RBI single, and Mika Garcia and Rachel Wright added back-to-back singles into center to cap off the four-run inning and make the score 10-6.
 
UAH used its own big inning in the fifth to end the game early, scoring four runs on two hits and an error and putting the final score at 14-6.
 
Despite the loss, West Florida put together a strong offensive day. The Argonauts tallied double-digit hits for the 14th time this season and scored at least six runs for the third consecutive games and the 19th time this year.
 
Toney, Gilbert, Taylor and Wright each had multi-hit days, and Wright also drove in a pair of runs. It was Toney's 15th multi-hit game of the year – a team high – and she stretched her on-base streak to 13 games.
 
UWF will face Delta State at 10 a.m. on Friday morning in Florence. West Florida is 1-0 on the year against DSU, having taken a 3-1 win over the Lady Statesmen at the GSC Festival in February.