PENSACOLA, Fla. – The tenth-ranked University of West Florida softball team swept Miles in a doubleheader on Wednesday, winning two run-rule contests against the Golden Bears. With the wins, UWF stretched its winning streak to 14 games and improved to 18-1 on the year.
 
With a triple in the first inning of Game 1, Rhiannon Sassman tied the Gulf South Conference career triples record held by Nikki Carter from Lincoln Memorial, with 21. Sassman 21 career triples rank third in UWF history, however, as Misty Haynes (45) and Missy Cromer (23) hit their before UWF joined the GSC.
 
West Florida's 14-game winning streak is the team's longest since 2017, when the Argonauts won 23 consecutive games from March 7 through April 9. UWF is hitting .410 and averaging 8.7 runs per game during the streak, with a 1.53 ETA and a .166 opponent batting average.
 
On Wednesday, the team batted .535 and held Miles to a .118 average at the dish. Grace Gilbert and Teala Howard led the way with three hits across the two games, and Sassman drove in a career-high five RBIs in Game 1. Rachel Wright added at least one hit in both games, stretching her hitting streak to a UWF-best 12 games.
 
Game 1: UWF 11, Miles 2
West Florida wasted no time getting on the board in Game 1, as Sassman tripled to dead center field to score Rachel Wright and Teala Howard. Sassman stretched the lead to 3-0 in the first inning when she took home on a throw down to second from Miles in an attempt to catch Sara Spears stealing. 
 
Grace Gilbert helped her own cause in the first with a double to deep center field, scoring Callan Taylor and putting the score at 4-0. The doubles from Gilbert and Taylor in the first were just two of seven for the Argonauts in Game 1, matching the program's most since March 11, 2018, against Christian Brothers.
 
Gilbert was sharp on Wednesday, allowing a leadoff single by Davis Watkins but retiring the final eight batters she faced before leaving the game after the third inning. She finished the day with four strikeouts and only the one hit allowed and improved to 6-1 on the year.
 
Sassman added two more runs in the four-run second with a single through the right side, and Jacquelynne Poling doubled down the left field line to stretch the UWF lead to 7-0. Taylor lifted a sacrifice fly to score Kathleen Smiley to wrap up the inning with an 8-0 lead.
 
After Mika Garcia hit a one-out double in the third, Morgan Zettle brought her in with her first career hit – a double to right-center. Sassman added her final RBI in the third and Poling doubled down the left field line again to give UWF its final runs of the game.
 
Tori Perkins entered the game in the fourth and allowed two unearned runs, despite allowing just one hit and striking out two batters.
 
Game 2: UWF 11, Miles 0
The Argonauts put up 11 runs again in Game 2, fueled by a seven-run second inning in which they tallied five hits and a pair of walks. Courtney McLellan, Rachel Wright, and Teala Howard each added RBI hits in the inning.
 
Taylor hit a sac fly to make it 8-0 in the fourth, before Ashley McNally singled down the left field line to score Sassman. Gilbert added a sac fly later in the inning, and Sara Spears singled to center field to score McNally to wrap up the scoring.
 
Ally Merrill, who scored on a single from McLellan, and Spears had multi-hit games in Game 2.
 
Kelsey Sweatt was dominant in her start, striking out three over three innings and allowing only one hit. Perkins came in to finish the game off in the fourth and allowed only one hit while getting four groundouts and striking out one. Sweatt improved to 6-0 on the year with her win.
 
West Florida will get back to Gulf South Conference play with a weekend series against Mississippi College at the UWF Softball Complex, beginning with a single game on Friday at 6 pm.