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Vs. Florida Southern
GAME 1 STATS | GAME 2 STATS
 
Vs. West Alabama
STATS | VIDEO
 
PENSACOLA, Fla. – The No. 2 University of West Florida softball team will wrap up the regular season with five games over the next three days. The action starts with a neutral-site doubleheader in Tallahassee against Florida Southern, scheduled to begin at 1 pm ET on Thursday, and the Argonauts will finish things up with a three-game weekend series at home against West Alabama on Friday and Saturday.
 
The series against UWA will start with a single game on Friday at 6 pm at the UWF Softball Complex, and the Saturday doubleheader will begin at 2 pm.
 
UWF will be celebrating Senior Day after the doubleheader on Saturday, acknowledging the careers of Tori Perkins, Rhiannon Sassman, Kathleen Smiley, Sara Spears, and Rachel Wright.
 
 
This Group of Seniors
West Florida's class of 2019 has been one of the strongest senior groups in Argonaut history. The class has won 158 games over the last four seasons, the most in a four-year stretch since 2005.
 
Four-year Argonauts Rhiannon Sassman, Kathleen Smiley, Sara Spears, and Rachel Wright, along with transfer Tori Perkins, have led the Argonauts to three consecutive NCAA Tournaments -- a feat that has not been accomplished at UWF since 2008-10. All five have been instrumental parts of one of the strongest turnarounds in college softball, including a trip to the 2017 NCAA Championship and recording the 13th-best single-season improvement in DII history in 2016.
 
A Look at Florida Southern
UWF and FSC split this same doubleheader in Tallahassee last year, giving Florida Southern the 12-10 advantage in the all-time series. The Mocs are 15-27 this year and finished the Sunshine State Conference schedule with a 7-23 mark. FSC has lost seven games in a row, and Thursday will mark the team's final two games of the season.
 
About West Alabama
The Tigers from West Alabama sit in fourth place in the GSC standings at 15-10 overall, picking up impressive wins against Alabama Huntsville, Lee, and Mississippi College throughout the year. UWA also comes in as one of the hottest teams in the GSC, having won eight of its last nine games and earning the No. 9 spot in the latest South Region Rankings.
 
Pitcher Nora Keehn leads the GSC with 154.2 innings pitched and is second in the league with 15 victories. She earned GSC pitcher of the week honors after striking out 11 against Mississippi College last weekend and posting a 1.00 ERA in a complete game win over the Choctaws.
 
Kierra Hague and Kacy Noland have impressed offensively, hitting .364 and .362, respectively. Hague leads the Tigers with 7 home runs and a .606 slugging percentage, while Noland's eight doubles and 27 runs scored are team highs.
 
What's On the Line Here?
With just three regular-season GSC contests remaining, West Florida holds a three-game lead over Alabama Huntsville in the conference standings. Winning a single game against West Alabama this weekend would give UWF the regular-season GSC Championship and hosting duties for the GSC Tournament. The tournament runs from May 2-5, and it would be the first time since 2006 that UWF has posted the best regular-season conference record -- a time when the GSC was split into East and West divisions.
 
UWF remained in the top spot in the South Region Rankings, released on Wednesday by the NCAA. The regional rankings, which determine what teams make the NCAA Tournament field, saw the same three teams at the top in their second week. UWF, Florida Tech, and Valdosta State stayed at Nos. 1, 2 and 3, respectively, but Alabama Huntsville jumped to No. 4 and Saint Leo moved to No. 5. Mississippi College, Rollins, and Tampa round out the top eight, and West Alabama and Union rank ninth and tenth.
 
The champions from the Gulf South, Sunshine State, and Southern Intercollegiate Athletic conferences earn an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament, and the highest-ranked teams that remain earn at-large bids.
 
Home Sweet Home
There has been no place quite like the UWF Softball Complex for the Argonauts this year. The team has gone 17-1 at the friendly confines with one regular-season series left to go -- against West Alabama to wrap up the regular season.
 
UWF is hitting .384, led by Rhiannon Sassman, Courtney McLellan, and Jacquelynne Poling, who are each hitting .500. Sassman leads the team in runs (19), hits (27), home runs (3), RBIs (21), and slugging (.944) at home, while McLellan leads Argos with 6 doubles.
 
The Impressive Rhiannon Sassman
Senior Rhiannon Sassman has been on a tear in her senior season at West Florida, leading the country with 8 triples and ranking in the top 5 in the GSC in total bases (95; 3rd), batting (.432), slugging (.720; 4th), on-base percentage (.527; 5th), hits (57; 5th), RBIs (43; 5th), and doubles (13; 5th).
 
The senior broke the GSC career triples record on Wednesday, March 13, against Montevallo, passing Lincoln Memorial's Nikki Carter (1993-96) with her 22nd career three-bagger. 
 
Sassman currently ranks seventh in UWF history with a .370 career batting average, fourth with a .604 career slugging percentage, sixth with 44 career doubles, second with 23 career triples, and first with 31 times hit by pitch. Her 24 triples also lead all active Division II softball players, rank second among active players at any NCAA level, and are the most in Gulf South Conference history.
 
How About Mika Garcia?
Sophomore shortstop Mika Garcia has been on a tear since the series against Delta State, hitting .406 and slugging .563 over her last 13 games. The Jacksonville, Florida, native recently ended an 11-game on-base streak, which was the longest active streak on the team. 
 
She has three multi-hit games and a pair of contests with multiple RBIs, including the series finale against Lee on Saturday when she went 2-for-2 with two RBIs and a walk. She also drove in the first two runs of the series opener against Shorter on March 30, which included a solo home run in the third inning to start the scoring.
 
Teala Howard Is Only A Freshman
Freshman Teala Howard has been one of the most electric players in the country, and the rookie ranks 10th in Division II with 68 hits this year. Howard also ranks 15th in stolen bases (37), and 17th in batting average (.459).
 
The Lake Butler, Florida, native is a three-time GSC Freshman of the Week and has reached base in 40 of 45 games played this season. In all, Howard leads UWF with 23 multi-hit games this year, and she has had multiple hits in five of her last nine games.
 
And Courtney McLellan?
Courtney McLellan is another sophomore lighting things up for UWF offensively, as the Bradenton, Florida, native has hit .361 over her last 13 games. McLellan has four multi-hit games in that time, including two on April 13 against Lee when she went a combined 5-6 with an RBI and a double.
 
She has destroyed GSC pitching this year, with a .410 batting average and a .656 slugging percentage. She is second on the team with 7 doubles and a .471 on-base percentage in league play.
 
A Look at the Rankings
UWF fell to No. 2 in the country after suffering a sweep at UAH over the weekend, but the Argonauts are still in fine shape. No. 2 West Florida earned seven first-place votes in Wednesday's NFCA poll, tying new No. 1 Central Oklahoma, who beat out the Argonauts by just a single point. UWF has been in the top 10 in every in-season poll this year, and the Argonauts have been in the top two spots in the country for each of the last eight weeks.