MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The University of West Florida softball team finished off a sweep of Auburn Montgomery on Saturday, getting shutouts from Kelsey Sweatt and Tori Perkins in the circle. With the wins, UWF is now 16-1 overall and has a 6-0 record in the Gulf South Conference, which is the best in the league.
The wins represented the fifth and sixth shutouts of the year for the UWF pitching staff – Grace Gilbert, Sweatt, and Perkins. The trio shut out AUM for the weekend, and those are the only times the Warhawks have been shut out this year. AUM was averaging 8.3 runs and hitting .373 entering the weekend, and the team is now hitting .328 and averaging 6.8 runs per contest.
Opponents have now hit .171 against UWF pitching and are now slugging .217 against the Argos this year.
Mika Garcia brought in a team-high four RBIs between the two games, marking her fourth and fifth multi-RBI games of the season, which lead the team. After opening each game with a hit, Rachel Wright extended her hitting streak to 10 games, which is the longest active streak for UWF players.
GAME 1: UWF 3, AUM 0
UWF got out to a quick lead in the first, with Rachel Wright singling through the left side. Teala Howard followed with a single that ultimately scored Wright, which turned out to be the game-winning run.
Kelsey Sweatt was dominant in Game 1, earning her fifth win of the year in the circle and throwing her first complete game shutout of the season. She scattered four hits and four walks over the full seven innings, with three base runners reaching in the first inning.
Sweatt held off the threat with a popout and a strikeout to end the inning, and she retired 14 of 15 batters afterward, including those two to end the first. She ended the game with four strikeouts, two of which came in the fifth.
UWF cashed in another pair of runs in the seventh to stretch the lead to 3-0, after Mika Garcia singled up the middle to score pinch-runners Kara Wilson and Sara Spears. Jacquelynne Poling led off the inning reaching on a dropped throw from across the infield, and Callan Taylor singled through the left side to put a pair of runners on with no outs.
Gilbert then dropped a sacrifice bunt to move the runners on second and third with no outs, before Garcia brought in the runners. Howard and Garcia each had two hits in the game.
The win in Game 1 for UWF was the 1,500th in program history, and West Florida has the second-highest winning percentage among GSC teams since joining the league in 1994 (.672).
GAME 2: UWF 6, AUM 0
After back-to-back singles from Wright and Howard to start the game, Perkins helped herself out with a two-run single through the right side to give UWF a 2-0 lead.
That would be all Perkins needed, as she was perfect through the first four innings and did not allow a hit until the sixth. The senior allowed two baserunners in the inning, with a walk and a single, but she escaped the trouble with an infield fly and a groundout to second base.
Wright added two triples, in the third and seventh, and came around to score each time. Wright reached all four times she came up in the game, drawing a walk in the fourth.
West Florida added a run in the third to stretch the UWF lead to 3-0, with a Rhiannon Sassman groundout that brought around Wright. Garcia singled into left-center in the fourth to bring in Gilbert and Ally Merrill, giving her four RBIs on the day.
The Argonauts added a final insurance run in the seventh, with a single from Howard that scored Wright.
UWF will host Miles on Wednesday at the UWF Softball Complex.
#ARGOS#
