PENSACOLA, Fla. – The top-ranked University of West Florida softball team allowed just two total runs in its doubleheader against Lee on Saturday, completing a sweep over the Lady Flames to move to 39-5 overall. With the wins, UWF also improved to 22-2 in Gulf South Conference play, holding a 5-game lead over Alabama Huntsville for first place in the conference standings.
 
Courtney McLellan led UWF on Saturday with five total hits, adding a double and an RBI in the doubleheader, and Mika Garcia went 3-for-4 with a triple. McLellan hit .625 (5-8) for the weekend, and Rhiannon Sassman led the team with a .778 slugging percentage for the weekend.
 
Kelsey Sweatt and Tori Perkins each posted a 1.00 ERA in their respective complete-game efforts, allowing Lee batters to hit just .152 across 14 innings.
 
GAME 1: UWF 5, Lee 1
UWF got two-hit days from McLellan and Jacquelynne Poling in the first game, and Sweatt earned her 14th win of the year while allowing just five hits. The sophomore retired each the first seven and nine of the first 10 batters she faced, on the way to improving her GSC-best marks in ERA (1.35) and opponent batting average (.171).
 
Poling and Ally Merrill scored the first two runs of the game, coming across on a line drive from Rachel Wright that was dropped by Lee center fielder Lily Hatcher to give UWF an early 2-0 lead. The Argonauts added another pair of runs in the third with a fielder's choice from Callan Taylor and an RBI single from McLellan that scored Taylor a batter later.
 
Lee chipped away at Sweatt in the fourth and cut the UWF lead to 4-1, but West Florida bounced right back in the bottom half of the inning with a Teala Howard bunt that scored Garcia after a leadoff triple.
 
From there, Sweatt would surrender only three hits and held Lee scoreless the rest of the way. Saturday marked Sweatt's 15th appearance this year in which she allowed one or fewer earned runs.
 
GAME 2: UWF 6, Lee 1
McLellan recorded her third three-hit game of the season in Game 2, adding an RBI in the fourth inning on a single down the left field line. West Florida put together some quick offense in the series finale, scoring three runs in the second and adding two more in the fourth before a single from Howard scored Ashley McNally and ended the scoring in the fifth.
 
Just a day after recording the game-tying RBI in the series opener, Garcia brought in the game-winning run with a second-inning single to score Rachel Wright and Tori Perkins and gave UWF a 2-0 lead. Rhiannon Sassman added a sacrifice fly just a batter later – scoring McNally for the first of three times in the contest – and stretched the Argonaut lead to 3-0.
 
Howard singled in the fourth to score McNally before McLellan's single put the lead at 5-0. After Lee scratched across a run in the top of the fifth, Howard singled and scored McNally one more time to wrap up the scoring at 6-1.
 
Tori Perkins improved to 9-2 on the year while allowing just two hits – both to 2-hitter Lily Hatcher – and striking out four batters. Perkins now ranks third in the GSC in ERA (1.77) and fourth in opponent batting average (.189).
 
UWF will visit No. 14 Alabama Huntsville on Friday and Saturday next weekend to continue GSC play.