MONTEVALLO, Ala. – The fourth-ranked University of West Florida softball team split a doubleheader against Montevallo on Saturday afternoon. The Argonauts are now 7-5 overall and 1-2 in the Gulf South Conference.  
 
Kelsey Sweatt picked up her third win of the season in the first half of the doubleheader, with a complete game two-hitter.
 
Five Argonauts recorded multi-hit games, with Grace Gilbert, Angela Agurkis, Jacquelynne Poling, and Madison Lanier doing so in Game 1. Courtney McLellan had a pair of hits in Game 2, the second of which was an RBI double in the seventh inning.
 
UWF will face Spring Hill in its home-opener on Wednesday at 4 pm at the UWF Softball Complex.  
 
GAME 1: UWF 6, MONTEVALLO 1
The first game of the day was never in doubt for UWF. Kelsey Sweatt retired eight of the first nine batters she faced, and she did not allow a hit until the fourth inning.
 
The junior tallied eight strikeouts in her third win of the season, and she dropped her season ERA to 2.39 after allowing just a single run over seven innings. Opponents are now hitting .189 against Sweatt – good for seventh-best in the GSC.
 
UWF's offense gave Sweatt more than enough room to work with, with 11 hits and 6 runs. The first of those came from the bat of catcher Jacquelynne Poling, when she hit her first home run of the season to center field in the second inning.
 
Mika Garcia hit a sacrifice fly to right field in the third, Angela Agurkis singled up the middle to score Grace Gilbert, and Mallory Vining was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to stretch UWF's lead to 4-0 in the third inning.
 
The Argonauts added their final two runs on back-to-back hits from Agurkis and Poling in the fourth inning, which scored Teala Howard and Grace Gilbert.
 
Sweatt ran into a bit of trouble in the fourth inning, but got away mostly unharmed. Montevallo scratched across one run, but Sweatt had no problems from there and sat down eight of the final nine batters she faced.
 
GAME 2: UWF 1, MONTEVALLO 2
A strong start from freshman pitcher Megan Warhurst was spoiled in Game 2. The Russellville, Alabama, native allowed one hit across 5.2 innings of work, but UWF ran into a buzzsaw in Mychael McMillan for Montevallo for a second consecutive day.
 
Warhurst did not allow a hit until Haley Barnette's home run in the fourth inning, and she retired 10 of the first 11 batters she faced on Saturday. After finishing the fourth and fifth with no trouble, a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the sixth gave Montevallo a 2-0 lead.
 
UWF struggled to get anything going offensively, as Courtney McLellan tallied both of the team's hits on the day. She drove in Mika Garcia in the top of the seventh to get West Florida on the board, but McMillan ended the rally to earn her third win of the year.