PRESS CONFERENCE
TOURNAMENT HOMEPAGE
TOURNAMENT BRACKET
 
DENVER, Colo. – The University of West Florida softball team cruised to a 5-1 win over 7-seed West Chester in the opening round of the NCAA Championship on Thursday afternoon, getting another complete game win from Grace Gilbert. The sophomore also went 3-for-3 with two runs scored on the way to earn her 25th win of the season, and UWF improved to 54-9.
 
"I think the girls came out and they were ready to play the kind of game they've played all year," head coach Ashliegh McLean said. "It was exciting to see our seniors stay calm and know that they've been here, and for our younger kids, like Grace Gilbert, stay super calm before the game. It was exciting to see, and they came out and performed."
 
With the victory, UWF will face 3-seed Augustana on Friday at 1:30 pm MT. This marks West Florida's third-ever win in the NCAA Championship.
 
The Argonauts never trailed on Thursday, loading the bases and scoring a run on a Kathleen Smiley groundball in the first inning. An inning later, Mika Garcia hit a triple off the wall in right-center field, scoring Gilbert and giving UWF a 2-0 lead.
 
Gilbert did not allow a run to score until the fourth, when Jaime Klemas scored on an error, but West Florida bounced back with three unanswered runs in the final two frames. From the end of the first through the start of the fourth, Gilbert retired nine consecutive batters.
 
Jacquelynne Poling pushed momentum back West Florida's way with her team-high fifth home run of the season, leading off the fifth inning with the roundtripper.
 
"I knew that I needed to start off the inning," Poling said. "I was looking for a pitch I could drive and get on base, and it happened to go out."
 
West Florida scored another pair of runs in the sixth, the first of which came when Rhiannon Sassman drew a bases-loaded walk to score Gilbert, and the second came when Mika Garcia scored on a wild pitch.
 
Gilbert has now reached base in 13 consecutive games, dating back to April 27 against West Alabama. She has reached in every one of UWF's postseason games she has played in, and has three multi-hit games in that time.
 
"(Today's win) is huge," McLean said. "In this tournament, you want to come out on top in that first game especially. If you lose that first game, it's really hard to grind back and get to that championship round. I think taking this game… says something and it gives our girls a little bit more confidence for tomorrow."
 
West Florida will face 3-seed Augustana on Friday at 1:30 pm MT/2:30 pm CT.
 
ABOUT AUGUSTANA
Augustana rolled to an 8-0, 5-inning win over 6-seed UC San Diego on Thursday in the opening round of the tournament. The Vikings have one of the top offenses in the country this season, ranking third in Division II in home runs (85), third in batting (.352), and third in slugging (.579).
 
Four student-athletes for Augustana have double-digit home runs, led by Maggie Kadrlik and Mary Pardo, who each have 17.
 
AU is far from a one-sided team, however. All three of Augustana's pitchers have ERAs under 1.80, and Ashley Mickschl leads the team with with 204.2 innings pitched at a 1.78 ERA.
 
Augustana is one of two programs in this year's Championship that has won a Division II national title, doing so in 1991.