DAHLONEGA, Ga. – The No. 2 University of West Florida softball team split Day 2 of the Captain D's Surf 'N Turf Classic on Monday, ending up at 23-3 for the season. UWF defeated No. 21 Wingate before No. 4 North Georgia, going to 6-2 against ranked opponents this year.
 
Callan Taylor led UWF with a .600 average between the two games, going 3-5 with a pair of doubles. Rachel Wright and Rhiannon Sassman each had three hits as well, and Sassman added two doubles and three doubles.
 
West Florida pitching posted a 1.35 ERA for the weekend, with 17 strikeouts over 26 innings and a .202 opponent batting average.
 
GAME 1: UWF 9, Wingate 1 (6 innings)
Grace Gilbert turned in another strong performance in the circle on Monday morning, going the distance for the sixth time this year and lowering her season ERA to 1.43. The sophomore allowed just four hits and one run in the game, while striking out three Wingate batters to earn her Gulf South Conference-best eighth win of the year.
 
The one blemish on Gilbert's day was a solo home run from Alexa Sells in the second inning, but Gilbert helped herself out in the bottom half of the inning with a two-run shot that turned out to be the game-winner. It was Gilbert's first career home run, and it scored Callan Taylor.
 
Of course, the home run was far from UWF's only offense against the Bulldogs. The Argonauts added two more runs in the third inning to take a 4-1 lead, with RBI doubles from Rhiannon Sassman and Jacquelynne Poling.
 
Sassman also singled into left field in the fourth inning to stretch UWF's lead to 6-1, scoring Jibrasha Moore and Kara Wilson to bring in her second and third RBIs of the game. That ties her with Rachel Wright for the team lead with six multi-RBI games this season.
 
Later in the inning, Kathleen Smiley homered to bring in Sassman and put UWF ahead 8-1. The round-tripper was the 19th of Smiley's career, tying her for ninth in UWF history with Nicky VanCamp.
 
Sassman, Rachel Wright, and Callan Taylor each had multiple hits in the game, and UWF got five total stolen bases in the game, with two from Wright, two from Jibrasha Moore, and one from Teala Howard. Those five stolen bases for the team tied the most in a single game this season for the Argonauts, matching the five UWF had against Saint Leo (2/1) and Eckerd (2/2).
 
GAME 2: UWF 1, UNG 5
The West Florida offense struggled to find an answer against UNG's Kylee Smith, who entered the weekend ranked second in Division II in strikeouts (109) and wins (10), while ranking third in shutouts (5) and 10th in ERA (0.41).
 
Exceptions came in the first and final innings of the game, as Rachel Wright led the game off with a double and came around to score on a single down the right field line from Teala Howard. UWF also mounted a strong attack in the seventh, starting with a one-out walk by Courtney McLellan.
 
From there, Jibrasha Moore reached on an error and Howard singled up the middle to load the bases with two outs before Sassman flew out to third base to end the game.
 
Between those attacks from UWF, North Georgia was able to scrape across five runs on Kelsey Sweatt and the UWF defense. The first strike came on a first-inning home run from Katie Collins to give UNG a 2-1 lead, and the Nighthawks added three more in the fifth to end the scoring and take a 5-1 lead.
 
UWF will host Montevallo in a doubleheader at 3 pm on Wednesday.