UWF DAY OF PLAY INFORMATION
 
PENSACOLA, Fla. – Rhiannon Sassman's walkoff RBI single capped off a five-run comeback win by No. 1 West Florida over Lee on Friday afternoon in the series opener at the UWF Softball Complex. Sassman, who went 3-for-3 with 3 RBIs, helped lead West Florida to its 20th conference win of the season, as the Argonauts improved to 37-5 overall and 20-2 in the Gulf South Conference.
 
Lee (19-26, 7-14 GSC) put together a five-run fourth inning to jump ahead of West Florida, tallying four hits and drawing a pair of walks in the inning. Trailing 6-2 in the sixth, the Argonauts scored three in the bottom of the sixth and two more in the seventh to wrap up the victory. With the win, UWF stretched its lead in the conference standings to 4.5 games over Alabama Huntsville.
 
Sassman's three-hit night marked her 18th multi-hit game and her ninth multi-RBI game of the season. She hit her third home run of the season to lead off the fourth inning, tying her for the team lead in the category, and she drew a bases-loaded walk in the second to bring across Grace Gilbert for the game's first run.
 
With the score at 6-2, Sassman drew a one-out walk in the sixth before Teala Howard reached on a dropped fly ball, putting runners on second and third. Kathleen Smiley then cashed in what was then the biggest hit of the night with a double into the right-centerfield gap, cutting the deficit to 6-4.
 
Just a batter later, Jacquelynne Poling drove a double down the left field line to score pinch-runner Kara Wilson, setting the score at 6-5.
 
UWF kept the scoring going in the seventh with a two-spot, starting the rally with a Callan Taylor walk. Gilbert singled through the left side to put two runners on, and Garcia drove a single to right-center to bring in the game-tying run.
 
Sassman followed Garcia and used a nine-pitch at-bat and wrapped things up with a single over left fielder Abby McKinney's head that scored Gilbert and ended the game.
 
Gilbert was sharp for three innings, retiring the first eight batters she faced. The sophomore ran into trouble in the fourth with some timely Lee hits, before Tori Perkins entered the game in fourth and allowed two hits and a run in an inning of work.
 
Kelsey Sweatt earned her 13th win of the year, throwing 2.2 scoreless innings of relief after Perkins while striking out two batters. She lowered her GSC-best ERA to 1.37 in the effort.
 
The Argonauts tagged Lee starter Shonna Penny for 11 hits and drew 7 walks, without striking out.
 
Howard added a hit and scored a run, stretching her hitting streak to 11 games.
 
West Florida will host Lee in a doubleheader on Saturday, opening up UWF Founders Week with the Day of Play, beginning at 1 pm.