GSC SOFTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP HOMEPAGE
 
PENSACOLA, Fla. – The second-ranked University of West Florida softball team stayed perfect in the Gulf South Conference Tournament with a 5-0 win over West Alabama on Friday night. UWF, the 1-seed in the tournament, will now play at 1 p.m. on Saturday against either 4-seed Valdosta State or 7-seed Union.
 
Kelsey Sweatt dominated in the win, improving to 17-2 on the season with her fourth shutout of the year. Her first inning effort, sitting down the top of the West Alabama order with just six pitches, was a sign of things to come on Friday, as she did not allow a hit until the fourth inning.
 
Sweatt struck out eight Tigers batters, marking her third consecutive shutout. In her last three starts, Sweatt has thrown 23.0 innings with 22 strikeouts, 1 walk, a .135 opponent batting average, and no runs allowed. With the game tied 0-0 through two-and-a-half innings, Sweatt struck out the side in the third and pushed momentum West Florida's way.
 
The Argonauts responded with a run in the top of the fourth, courtesy of Jacquelynne Poling's fourth home run of the season that gave UWF a 1-0 lead and tied her with Kathleen Smiley with the most on the team this year. Poling had arguably her best game of the year on Friday, hitting the home run and a double in the second inning to the left-center gap in her first start since April 20.
 
Poling, a junior, has three multi-hit games in her last six contests, with three runs, three RBIs, two doubles, and a home run.
 
West Florida added three more runs in the fifth, getting a two-run triple from Teala Howard that scored Rachel Wright and Grace Gilbert, and adding the final run with a Rhiannon Sassman sacrifice fly to bring in Howard. Courtney McLellan added a sacrifice fly in the sixth to cap off the scoring and put UWF ahead 5-0.
 
With another two hits on Friday, Teala Howard now leads all players in the tournament with 5 hits, a .714 batting average, and a .750 on-base percentage.
 
UWF will face the winner of 4-seed Valdosta State and 7-seed Union on Saturday at 1 p.m. in a game moved up due to the threat of rain in the forecast.