PENSACOLA, Fla. – The University of West Florida baseball team took a 4-1 win against Southern Indiana on Tuesday night at Jim Spooner Field, behind a strong start on the mound from Jared Middleton, an excellent relief effort from Anthony Martens, and some timely hitting from the Argonaut bats. 
 
West Florida is now 13-8 on the year, and Southern Indiana is 6-7, heading into tomorrow's midweek series finale. 
 
Middleton's start put UWF in position to win, as the senior went 5.0 innings with 5 strikeouts, while allowing just one hit and improving to 2-0 on the year. 
 
"In the midweek games, you definitely need to get a good start from your pitchers, and Middleton did exactly what we needed," head coach Mike Jeffcoat said."After the first he really settled down and held the lead until we could score some more runs to open the lead."
 
Middleton cruised through the final three innings of his start, allowing only one batter to reach from the third through the fifth. As impressive as Middleton was, catcher Trevor Payne was the star of the day. 
 
The Argonaut offense got kicked off early with a home run in the top of the first from Payne, who went 4-for-5 with a pair of RBIs on the day. It was Payne's second round-tripper of the young season, with his first coming over the weekend series against West Georgia last Saturday. 
 
That 1-0 lead provided by Payne was enough for the Argonauts, before Miller Hancock delivered a two-out RBI single over the head of USI third baseman Lucas McNew in the sixth.
 
USI struck for a run in the top of the seventh and threatened for more, but freshman reliever Anthony Martens induced a bases-loaded popout from Screaming Eagles cleanup hitter Manny Lopez to end the inning. 
 
Martens, who earned his fourth save of the year, threw 2.1 innings of scoreless ball and struck out four in the effort. 
 
"Anthony Martens got us out of a big bases-loaded jam, and he has been very poised in those situations for us," Jeffcoat said. "That's what the guys have to do, they have to pick each other up."
 
UWF got the run back in the seventh, with a two-out, bases-loaded single from True Fontenot that stretched the lead to 3-1. West Florida picked up another run in the eighth on a grounder from Payne that scored second baseman Sam Harris, who slid around the tag from USI catcher Wyatt Daly to extend UWF's lead to 4-1.
 
"This was a good midweek victory, and certainly puts us in good position for tomorrow," Jeffcoat said.
 
West Florida will wrap the midweek series against USI on Wednesday, with first pitch at 1 pm. The Argonauts will then head to Lee for a weekend series in Cleveland, Tennessee, on Saturday and Sunday.