NOTES
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TICKETS: SINGLE SESSION | ALL-TOURNAMENT PASSES
TOURNAMENT BRACKET
FAN TRAVEL INFORMATION
STATS | VIDEO
 
PENSACOLA, Fla. – The No. 2-ranked University of West Florida softball team will start its NCAA Championship run on Thursday, May 23, with a 4 pm MT start against 7-seed West Chester at the Regency Athletic Complex in Denver, Colorado.
 
This is UWF's fourth trip to the NCAA Championship, last reaching the final site in 2017.
 
All games in the double-elimination tournament will have a live video broadcast and live stats at NCAA.com, and links for each day can be found on GoArgos.com/Softball prior to first pitch.
 
Both single-session and all-tournament passes are available both at the gate or online, at the links above. Adults are charged $35 for an all-tournament pass and $10 for a single session. Seniors, students, and youth will be charged $20 for all-tournament passes and just $6 for a single-session pass.
 
In the NCAA Tournament
A 2-seed at the NCAA Championship, West Florida is making its 14th NCAA Tournament appearance, and the Argonauts have been one of the best teams in the Gulf South Conference in NCAA Tournament play. UWF has 35 wins all-time in the NCAA Tournament -- third-most among GSC teams -- and the Argos hold a .556 winning percentage in the Tournament.
 
UWF's 14 wins in the NCAA Tournament since 2017 are the most in the GSC, and the Argonauts advanced to the NCAA Championship as recently as 2017. 
 
West Florida has now reached four consecutive NCAA Tournaments, marking the first time the team has done so since 1998-2001.
 
The NCAA Championship is a double-elimination tournament, with the final two teams playing in a best-of-three series on Sunday, May 26 and Monday, May 27. This is UWF's fourth trip to the NCAA Championship, and the Argonauts hold a 2-6 all-time record in the tournament -- including a win in 2017 against last year's national champion Southern Indiana.
 
About West Chester
The Argonauts will see a somewhat familiar face on Thursday when the team plays West Chester. UWF and WCUP faced off at the Leadoff Classic in Clearwater, Florida, in early February, when West Florida took an 8-3 win over the then-No. 8 Golden Rams.
 
The only team to return to the NCAA Championship from last year's field, West Chester comes in with a 39-20 record. WCUP has a few of big bats, in Emily Maseth, Heidi MCollister, and Bri Garber. Maseth is hitting .398 with 21 doubles, McCollester leads the team with 11 home runs and 121 total bases, and Garber has a team-high 61 runs scored to go along with her .371 average.
 
In the circle, first team all-region selection Reilly Gearheart has posted a 2.24 ERA and a 17-8 record. She did not face UWF in February.
 
In what has become standard procedure for UWF, the Argonauts trailed 3-1 heading into the 5th inning against West Chester in February, before scoring seven runs in the final two frames. Rhiannon Sassman had five RBIs in a 3-for-3 day.
 
Playing the Best
West Florida has played the seventh-strongest opposition in all of Division II this year, with a .588 opponent winning percentage. The Argonauts have also played 27 games against teams that reached the NCAA Tournament, holding a 20-7 record in those contests.
 
The pitching has held up for UWF in such games, with a 2.18 team ERA. Grace Gilbert has been outstanding in big games like those, with a 1.59 ERA to go along with her 11-3 record. Four teams from the Gulf South Conference (UWF, Lee, Valdosta State, and West Georgia) are in the top 10 in the country in opponent winning percentage.
 
A Look at Last Weekend
UWF advanced to the NCAA Championship with a pair of comeback victories over No. 4 Florida Tech last week, winning 6-3 and 7-1 with 12 of those 13 total runs coming in the fifth inning or later.
 
West Florida took the 7-1 win after scoring all seven runs in the final two innings, marking the fifth consecutive game in which UWF has been tied or trailed in the sixth inning. Grace Gilbert finished the weekend with a 0.00 ERA over 10 innings, allowing FIT to hit just .152.
 
Teala Howard hit .571 (4-7) with three steals in the series, and Rhiannon Sassman went 3-6 with two runs, a double, and an RBI.
 
Last Time We Were Here
West Florida went 1-2 in the 2017 NCAA Championship, taking a win over 2018 national champions Southern Indiana. Four starters from the 2017 club will be returning to the tournament this year, in Rhiannon Sassman, Rachel Wright, Sara Spears, and Callan Taylor. Sassman hit .333 (3-9) in that tournament, Wright led UWF with 3 runs scored, Taylor hit a home run and had 3 RBIs, and Spears batted .286 with a double.
 
The Defense
This year's UWF defense has been one of the best in program history, ranking 2nd in Division II with a .977 fielding percentage. That percentage is also the highest in UWF history, seven points better than the 2009 team's .970.
 
The Argonauts' fielding percentage is 11th across all NCAA divisions, tied with the likes of Michigan, Tennessee, and Birmingham Southern.
 
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 172 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 four consecutive NCAA Tournaments -- a feat that has not been accomplished at UWF since 1998-2001. 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 (18 games) in DII history in 2016. The team has nearly matched that improvement this year, jumping from a 31-21 record to 53-9 -- good for a 17-game improvement.