PENSACOLA, Fla. – Grace Gilbert and Kelsey Sweatt put together excellent starts against West Georgia on Saturday, but the University of West Florida softball team dropped both ends of a doubleheader to the Wolves. UWF is now 16-9 on the year with a 6-5 Gulf South Conference record, and West Georgia is 11-8 with a 7-4 conference mark.
 
West Florida will wrap up the series with a single game beginning at 1 pm at the UWF Softball Complex.
 
The Argonaut pitching staff – Gilbert, Sweatt, and freshman Megan Warhurst – combined to strike out 24 batters over 17 innings, with a .167 opponent batting average and a 1.24 ERA for the day. Both Gilbert and Sweatt had career highs in strikeouts on the day, with Gilbert striking out 10 and Sweatt picking up 13.
 
Teala Howard led all batters with four hits and a .571 batting average on the day. Howard had two more multi-hit games and extended her hitting streak to 13 games. She has had multiple hits in each of her last six games, and in 10 of her last 11.
 
GAME 1: UWF 1, West Georgia 5 (10 innings)
Gilbert was outstanding in her 9.1 innings of work, with 10 strikeouts and just five hits allowed, without issuing a single walk. After allowing a home run to Lexi Close in the second inning, Gilbert retired 17 consecutive batters, into the eighth inning.
 
She and UWG pitcher Morgan Goree matched zeroes from the fourth through the ninth innings.
 
UWF got on the board in the third with a Teala Howard sac fly that brought in Jibrasha Moore, but that would be West Florida's only run of the game. The Argonauts, however, had other opportunities.
 
One of those came in the seventh when Taylor singled through the left side to lead off the inning. After pinch-runner Laurynn Boggs stole second, the Argonauts could not manage to bring her in.
 
With the international tiebreaker coming into effect in the 10th inning, a runner was placed on second for each team with no outs. Lexi Close singled up the middle to take a 2-1 lead for UWG, and Madison Slappey made it 4-1 with a single to center field. A final run came across for the Wolves on a wild pitch, stretching the lead to 5-1.
 
In all, Gilbert was charged with five runs, only two of which were earned. Warhurst entered the game in the 10th and did not allow a hit in her 0.2 innings.
 
GAME 2: UWF 1, West Georgia 2
It was another pitcher's duel in Game 2, this time between Kelsey Sweatt and Lexi Close. Sweatt took the tough-luck loss, spinning seven excellent innings with a career-high 13 strikeouts and just five hits allowed.
 
Hannah Scarbrough hit a leadoff home run to take a 1-0 lead, but Sweatt cruised through the next three innings.
 
UWF bounced back with an RBI groundout from Gilbert, when she brought in Howard after a leadoff triple. That would be the only scoring until the fourth inning, when UWG's Sissy Atchley doubled to right-center and brought in a run to give the Wolves a 2-1 lead.
 
West Florida threatened in the fifth, when Mallory Vining reached on an error and Moore dropped a bunt single to put two on with nobody out. That would be the end of the day in the circle for Close, as Goree sat down the Argonauts in order and finished off the final three innings to earn the save.