NOTES
STATS | VIDEO
 
PENSACOLA, Fla. – The University of West Florida softball team will visit Auburn Montgomery on Friday and Saturday for a Gulf South Conference series. First pitch on Friday will be at 5 pm, before Saturday's doubleheader at 1 pm.
 
UWF is 13-6 with a 7-2 record in the GSC, and AUM enters the week at 14-0 with a 6-0 GSC record.
 
Each game will feature a live video broadcast and live stats, the links for which are above and at GoArgos.com.
 
SCOUTING AUBURN MONTGOMERY
Auburn Montgomery received votes in the latest NFCA coaches poll released on Wednesday. With a 14-0 record, the Warhawks have been one of the best teams in the country, statistically. They rank first in Division II in stolen bases per game (4.29) and total stolen bases (60), fifth in ERA (1.22), and seventh in home runs (18) and runs scored (116).
 
AUM has been led by a handful of players, both at the plate and in the circle. Gia Martin has been one of the best freshmen in the GSC, ranking fifth nationally with 6 home runs and 11th with 19 RBIs. Allie Miller ranks second in the country with 13 stolen bases, behind only UWF's Teala Howard. And Molly Cobb has been outstanding at the plate, hitting .541 with 4 doubles, 3 home runs, and 10 walks against 3 strikeouts.
 
Alanna Goble and Bailie Barnes have thrown the most for AUM, sporting ERAs of 1.31 and 0.56, respectively. Goble has struck out 29 batters over 32.0 innings, and Barnes has struck out 18 in 25.0 innings.
 
UWF is 5-3 all-time against AUM, sweeping the Warhawks in 2019 in Montgomery.
 
ALLY MERRILL HITS FOR POWER
Several UWF hitters have hit for more power than usual this season, but none have taken the steps forward that first baseman Ally Merrill has. Merrill has slugged .688 and hit .375, compared to career averages of .425 and .303, respectively.
 
A key contributor to the 2019 South Region Championship team and a starter for the last two seasons, Merrill has already set career highs in RBIs (12) and total bases (33) batting in the middle of the UWF order this season, and she has hit four home runs.
 
Merrill is also on a six-game hitting streak, batting 8-for-16 with two home runs, 16 total bases, a 1.000 slugging percentage, and a .571 on-base percentage, while walking twice as often as she has struck out.
 
GILBERT SPINNING GEMS
Pitcher Grace Gilbert has been outstanding in her last four outings, dating back to the series against Alabama Huntsville at home. She has thrown 17.2 innings with a 0.79 ERA, striking out 11 and issuing 3 walks, while opponents have hit just .190. Over her last four appearances, Gilbert's ERA has dropped from 4.57 to 2.93.
 
She was especially strong against Mississippi College on March 5, when she struck out six and allowed three hits in a dominant complete game shutout. She also spun five shutout innings against Spring Hill on Tuesday afternoon.
 
DOMINANT IN THE CIRCLE
West Florida's rotation dominated over the weekend against Mississippi College, posting a 1.00 ERA over 21 innings of work. The trio – Grace Gilbert, Kelsey Sweatt, and Montana Young – struck out 17 batters while walking just 4, and they held the Lady Choctaws to a .155 batting average.
 
Gilbert threw a shutout on Friday to open the series, with six strikeouts and just three hits allowed and no walks. Sweatt and Young followed suit on Saturday, combining for 11 strikeouts and a .163 batting average against them to take two more wins from MC. Sweatt started the day by striking out six and allowing only three hits, and Young struck out five with no walks over her seven innings of work.
 
THE EXCITING TEALA HOWARD
Teala Howard has been one of the top players in the country since she arrived in Pensacola in 2019. The junior from Lake Butler, Florida, is UWF's all-time batting leader (.467), ranks third in steals (89) and sixth in slugging (.579), and leads Division II in stolen bases this year (16). Howard also led DII in hits last season, and she tied the UWF single-season record for batting in 2019 (.464) as a freshman.
 
She is riding a 14-game hitting streak -- the third streak of at least 14 games in her career. She has hit .429 with 21 hits, 17 runs, a .481 on-base percentage, and 10 steals over that time -- all of which lead the team. UWF's third baseman also wrapped up an 18-game hitting streak at the beginning of the season that dated back to February 19, 2020.