VALDOSTA, Ga. – The University of West Florida softball team got back into Gulf South Conference play with a pair of wins over No. 9 Valdosta State on the road on Saturday. With the wins, No. 2 UWF improved its conference-best record to 27-3 and 11-0 in the GSC, while Valdosta State dropped to 16-7 with a 5-5 mark in league play.
 
Teala Howard led all players with five hits and four runs scored, and Rhiannon Sassman went 4-for-6 with a pair of doubles. Four Argonauts – Sassman, Howard, Jacquelynne Poling and Courtney McLellan – had two RBIs on the day, and Poling and McLellan each hit their first home runs of the season.
 
In the circle, Grace Gilbert and Kelsey Sweatt each threw complete games and held Valdosta State to a .149 batting average in the doubleheader.
 
GAME 1: UWF 6, VSU 3
Valdosta State got off to a quick start in Game 1 with a two-run home run from Kiley Robb, but UWF then scored six unanswered runs over the next three innings to take the lead and give Grace Gilbert more than enough cushion to win the game.
 
Gilbert earned her GSC-best 10th win of the season on Saturday, going the distance for the seventh time this year, allowing just seven hits and striking out three batters. The sophomore found a groove after allowing the first inning home run, retiring seven of the next eight batters she faced and allowing only three hits in her final six innings.
 
Trailing 2-0 after an inning, Poling led off the second with a home run, and McLellan hit a solo shot of her own just two batters later to tie things up. The homer was McLellan's first of her career, and it was Poling's second.
 
UWF put another three runs on the board in the third, starting with a bunt single from Howard and an infield single from Sassman, before a double steal put the pair in scoring position with no outs. Poling singled to score Howard for her second RBI of the game, and Callan Taylor brought in Sassman with a sacrifice fly, giving West Florida the 4-2 lead.
 
McLellan added an RBI single of her own a batter later, and the Argos scored a final run in the fourth when Sassman doubled to right-center to score Howard, putting the score at 6-2. VSU tacked on a run in the fifth but would not threaten the UWF lead.
 
The Argonauts tagged Caylie Van Auken for five runs and eight hits over three innings, more runs and hits than any other team has totaled against the sophomore this year.
 
GAME 2: UWF 4, VSU 1
Kelsey Sweatt improved to 9-1 on the year with a two-hitter in the back end of the doubleheader, striking out three batters in her sixth complete game of the year. Those three strikeouts put her at the top of the GSC with 75 for the year, and she ranks second in the conference in opponent batting average (.152) and wins (9).
 
Howard and Sassman each had multiple hits in Game 2, with Howard adding two runs and two RBIs. While VSU got out to a 1-0 lead in the first, Sassman tied things up with a double to the right-center gap that scored Howard after she put down a two-out bunt single in the third.
 
Sweatt cruised through the next two-and-a-half innings after allowing the run in the first, retiring nine in a row from the first to the start of the fourth. She got out of a bases-loaded jam with a popout back to the circle in the fourth inning, and UWF responded with three runs in the fifth to take the late lead.
 
Jibrasha Moore hit an infield single to start the fifth, and Rachel Wright reached on an error before Howard doubled to bring in both runners and put West Florida ahead 3-1. Howard came in on a Kathleen Smiley grounder to finish off the scoring for West Florida.
 
Sweatt sat down nine of the final 10 batters she faced over the fifth, sixth, and seventh innings, allowing only one hit in the final six innings of her outing.
 
UWF goes for the sweep over No. 9 Valdosta State on Sunday, with first pitch in the series finale scheduled for 1 pm ET.