NOTES
STATS | VIDEO
TOURNAMENT HOMEPAGE
 
PENSACOLA, Fla. – The University of West Florida softball team is set to host the NCAA South 1 Region Tournament, beginning on Thursday at 1 pm with a game between UWF and 8-seed Spring Hill. The tournament will run from Thursday through Saturday, with SHC, 4-seed Valdosta State, and 5-seed Tampa visiting the Argonauts.
 
UWF enters the NCAA Tournament ranked No. 2 in the country, with a 47-8 record after sweeping the Gulf South Conference Tournament and winning the fourth GSC Championship in program history last week.
 
All games will feature a live video broadcast and live stats, and links for those can be found on the tournament homepage or GoArgos.com/Live.
 
NCAA Regional Ticket Information
Ticket Type                             Group                                                  Price
All Tournament Pass               Adult                                                    $20.00
All Tournament Pass               Senior 65+/youth 12 and under           $12.00
All Tournament Pass               Student                                                $12.00
 
Day Pass                                  Adult                                                    $8.00
Day Pass                                  Senior (65+/youth 12 and under          $5.00
Day Pass                                  Student                                                $5.00
 
In the NCAA Tournament
West Florida will be 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 29 wins all-time in the NCAA Tournament, third-most among GSC teams, and the Argos hold a .518 winning percentage in the Tournament.
 
UWF's seven wins in the NCAA Tournament over the last two years are the most in the GSC, and the Argonauts hosted the South Region 1 Tournament in 2017, also as a 1-seed.
 
West Florida has now reached four consecutive NCAA Tournaments, marking the first time the team has done so since 1998-2001.
 
This week's regional action will feature four teams and will be a double-elimination tournament, with the winner of the South 2 Region Tournament will advance to a Super Regional to face the South 1 Region Tournament winner for a chance to go to the NCAA Championship.
 
About Spring Hill
West Florida's first opponent will be a familiar one. Eighth-seeded Spring Hill has advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history, after winning the SIAC Championship over the weekend. Hannah Brenton, the SIAC Pitcher of the Year, holds a 15-5 record with a 2.77 ERA, and Delaney Thomas is hitting .383 with 17 doubles, 9 home runs, and 43 RBIs.
 
UWF has met up with SHC three times already this year, with the Argonauts holding a 3-0 edge in the 2019 series while outscoring the Badgers 21-3. UWF has defeated Spring Hill each of the last 11 times the teams have matched up, dating back to 2016, and the Argonauts have outscored SHC 67-18 over the last four seasons.
 
About Valdosta State
Fourth-seeded Valdosta State has reached the NCAA Tournament for a 14th consecutive season, entering the weekend with a 35-16 record. VSU is another familiar foe for the Argonauts, with UWF holding a 7-5 advantage over the Blazers since 2016. This season, West Florida leads the series 3-1 with a 9-0 run-rule victory over VSU last week in the GSC Tournament.
 
But Valdosta State is more talented than that result suggests. Caylie Van Auken, Lacey Crandall, Kiley Robb, and Kasie Johnson each earned a spot on the All-GSC second team last week for their efforts on the field.
 
About Tampa
Tampa, the 5-seed in the South Region, has won 22 of its last 24 games, which includes a school-record 19-game winning streak. Tampa's 32 wins are the most since 2014, and the program's 22 conference wins are the most in program history.
 
In the last game of the season, senior pitcher Makaleigh Dooley etched her name in the record books with her 26th victory of the year, the most wins in a season in UT history. The senior ranks second in the NCAA with her 26 wins and sits at ninth nationally in strikeouts with 214. Additionally, the right-hander earned SSC Pitcher of the Year for the second consecutive season, only the eighth SSC athlete to win the award twice.
 
UWF is 2-7 all-time against the Spartans, but the teams have not faced off since 2015, before any current student-athletes began their UWF careers.
 
Recapping the GSC Tournament
UWF cruised to its fourth Gulf South Conference Championship with a perfect 4-0 weekend in Pensacola, outscoring opponents 28-3 in the tournament.
 
UWF ended the weekend with the best batting average (.362), best ERA (0.88), most hits (34), most runs (28), and most strikeouts in the circle (24) among all teams in the tournament.
 
Kelsey Sweatt, Teala Howard, and Jacquelynne Poling were each named to the GSC All-Tournament Team, with Sweatt earning the nod as the tournament's Most Outstanding Player. Sweatt threw 14.0 total innings across three games, including the final two in Sunday's championship. She allowed just one run over the weekend, good for a 0.50 ERA, while striking out 18 batters and walking just 2. Howard led all players in the Tournament with a .571 batting average, four runs, and eight hits, while tying Poling with a tournament-best 5 RBIs. Poling added a double and three RBIs on Sunday to go along with the other double, home run, and two runs driven in that she recorded over the weekend.
 
Everyone, Come See How Good We've Been
This year's West Florida team has put together one of the best seasons the program has seen in the last decade. The Argonauts' 47 total wins and 25 conference victories are the most for the team since 2005 (60; 25), their 1.86 ERA is the best since 2009 (1.81), and their 5.9 runs per game are the most since 2010 (6.3). Additionally, UWF just won its first conference championship since 2005 and held the regular-season GSC crown for the first time since 2006.
 
The Regional Rankings
UWF ranked No. 1 in the final South Region rankings for the second time in the last three years. Valdosta State, Tampa, and Spring Hill visit Pensacola over the weekend, while Florida Tech -- the 2-seed -- will host Alabama Huntsville, Saint Leo, and Mississippi College.
 
Our All-GSC Awards
It has already been a banner year for the University of West Florida softball team, and the Argonauts can now add several Gulf South Conference yearly awards to the accolades. Rhiannon Sassman has been named the GSC Player of the Year, Teala Howard was named Freshman of the Year, and first-year coach Ashliegh McLean has been named the GSC Coach of the Year. This marks the fifth Coach of the Year award for UWF and it is McLean's first.
 
In addition to those, five Argonauts earned First Team All-GSC status. Sassman is the third baseman on the first team, Courtney McLellan earned a spot as an outfielder, Howard is a utility player on the team, and pitchers Kelsey Sweatt and Grace Gilbert made the first team, with Gilbert earning an at-large spot.
 
McLean has led UWF to top-10 rankings in every in-season national poll this year, which includes four weeks at the No. 1 spot in the NFCA Coaches Poll. Under the leadership of the UWF graduate, West Florida has recorded the fourth-best winning percentage in Division II this season, ranks fourth nationally in fielding percentage (.976), 12th in shutouts (16), 14th in ERA (1.86), and 16th in batting average (.334). Winona State and Grand Valley State are the only other schools in the country to rank in the top 20 in each of those categories.
 
Against the Conference
To little surprise, UWF ranked among the best teams in the GSC against league opponents. With a 25-4 record against the conference, the Argonauts rank second in batting (.317), on-base percentage (.395), and ERA (2.57), while leading the league in opponent batting average (.222).
 
Teala Howard (.438) leads the league in batting in conference play, while Rhiannon Sassman is fifth in batting (.414) and OBP (.500). Howard's 42 hits are the most against GSC opponents, and her 23 stolen bases rank second.
 
Home Sweet Home
There has been no place quite like the UWF Softball Complex for the Argonauts this year, as the team has gone 24-1 at the friendly confines.
 
UWF is hitting .368 and is getting great production from all over the lineup. Jacquelynne Poling leads the team with a .489 average (22-45), Rhiannon Sassman has a team-high 26 RBIs to go along with a .437 batting average, Teala Howard is hitting .480 with 25 runs scored, and Courtney McLellan and Poling lead UWF with 7 doubles at home.
 
In the circle, Kelsey Sweatt and Grace Gilbert are a combined 19-0 with a 1.75 ERA and six total shutouts.