NOTES
TOURNAMENT CENTRAL
STATS:
Florida Tech – Friday, 4:30 PM ET
Saint Leo – Friday, 6:30 PM ET
Palm Beach Atlantic – Saturday, 6:30 PM ET
CLEARWATER, Fla. – The University of West Florida softball team will continue its early stretch of neutral-site contests on the road this weekend, with a five-game swing in Clearwater, Florida, at the NFCA Leadoff Classic. UWF kicks off the weekend against Florida Tech on Friday and will wrap up the weekend with an 11 a.m. ET first pitch against No. 8 West Chester.
The tournament will take place at the Eddie C. Moore Complex in Clearwater, and ticket prices for the weekend can be found at the Tournament Central linked above.
Live stats will be available for three of UWF's five games of the weekend, including contests against No. 5 Saint Leo on Friday evening and No. 18 Palm Beach Atlantic on Saturday evening.
Freshman of the Week Teala Howard
Fresh off a 4-0 start to the season at the Gulf Coast Invitational, the University of West Florida softball team got its first weekly conference award winner of the year -- freshman
Teala Howard was named the Gulf South Conference Freshman of the Week, the league announced on Tuesday.
Howard led UWF in hitting (.667), runs (7), hits (8), slugging (.750), OBP (.714), and steals (4) over the weekend, and she had multiple hits and multiple runs scored in each of UWF's last three games – against Lander, Eckerd, and Tuskegee. The freshman from Lake Butler, Florida, had at least one hit in all four of UWF's games, and had what turned out to be the game-winning RBI double in a 13-2 win over Lander on Saturday.
Individually, Howard leads the conference in runs scored and on-base percentage, and she ranks second in hits and stolen bases.
A Look at Last Week
West Florida got off to a perfect 4-0 start last weekend, marking the first time since 2011 that West Florida has won the first four games of the year. Twelve of thirteen Gulf South Conference teams played in the Gulf Coast Invitational over the weekend, and West Florida leads the league in batting average (.368), runs scored (35), and ERA (0.81).
It all started with a dominant 9-2 win over No. 5 Saint Leo, when UWF jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead in the second inning and never trailed.
Mika Garcia went 3-for-4 and
Rachel Wright had 3 RBIs, while
Grace Gilbert earned her first win of the season in the circle.
After picking up a run-rule victory over Lander on Saturday morning, the Argonauts battled to a 7-4 win over Eckerd later in the day.
Kelsey Sweatt had a no-hitter through five innings, but was charged with four unearned runs in the sixth. With a 4-4 tie on the scoreboard,
Jacquelynne Poling drove in two runs with a game-winning single up the middle.
Argonaut pitching stood out in a Sunday win over Tuskegee, with Gilbert, Sweatt, and
Tori Perkins combining for eight strikeouts and two hits allowed in a shutout.
That's A Tough Schedule
The season started with a win over No. 5 Saint Leo, and the Argonauts will meet the Lions again on Friday at the Leadoff Classic -- but SLU isn't the only ranked opponent UWF faces early in the year.
At this week's Leadoff Classic -- an invitational arranged by the National Fastpitch Coaches Association -- West Florida will see No. 18 Palm Beach Atlantic and No. 8 West Chester, in addition to facing No. 5 Saint Leo again. Before facing No. 11 Alabama Huntsville and No. 22 Valdosta State during conference play, UWF will visit No. 3 North Georgia in Dahlonega, Georgia, in early March.
Pipelines
This year's UWF softball team has four pairs of teammates from the same high school:
Callan Taylor and
Hanna Stapleton (Navarre HS);
Mika Garcia and
Kelsey Sweatt (Oakleaf HS);
Rachel Wright and
Tori Perkins (Tate HS); and
Jibrasha Moore and
Kathleen Smiley (West Florida HS).
Garcia and Sweatt were both All-County and All-State players at Oakleaf HS, and both Tate HS and West Florida HS won state championships with future Argonauts on the squad. The championship for WFHS came in 2014, when Smiley was a senior and Moore was a sophomore. Tate's state title run was in 2015, with Wright and Perkins leading the senior class. Perkins would be named the 7A Player of the Year and was the Pensacola News Journal Player of the Year.
A Look at the Competition
UWF starts a busy weekend in Clearwater, Florida, with Sunshine State Conference foe Florida Tech (2-2), which just defeated No. 18 Palm Beach Atlantic last week and fell twice to Angelo State -- the reigning South Central Region champions.
Then the Argonauts will face Saint Leo for the second time in a week, following a 9-2 season-opening win last Friday in Gulf Shores, Alabama. Saint Leo is 3-3 after facing six GSC teams at the Gulf Coast Invitational to start the year, which included wins over Lee, Mississippi College, and No. 11 Alabama Huntsville.
California University of Pennsylvania is next up for the Argonauts, and the Vulcans will open their season in Clearwater. Cal U went 19-18 last year and has never faced UWF, nor has No. 8 West Chester -- West Florida's opponent for Sunday. West Chester won the Atlantic Region last year and made its second trip to the NCAA Championship in the last five years.
UWF will also face Palm Beach Atlantic on Saturday. The teams split a series in West Palm Beach last year, and PBA went on to earn the No. 1 seed in the South Region.
West Florida is 15-15 all-time against this week's opponents, with all 30 of those games coming against Florida Tech, PBA, and Saint Leo.
#ARGOS#
