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PENSACOLA, Fla. – The 22nd-ranked University of West Florida softball team will head to Jackson, Tennessee, on Friday and Saturday for a weekend series against Gulf South Conference foe Union. The Argonauts are 18-10 overall this season with a 12-6 GSC record, while Union is 4-21 with a 3-14 conference mark.
 
Tickets for each game must be purchased ahead of time at UUAthletics.com/Tickets, or at the gate using a smartphone. Fans will be screened at the entrance and social distancing is required when possible. Masks are required inside all buildings and restrooms, and when social distancing is not possible. Gates will open 1 hour before first pitch.
 
Additionally, fans who do not sit in the stands at Fesmire Softball Field must be 20 feet behind the fence/dugouts down the lines.
 
The Friday doubleheader to start the series is scheduled for a 1 pm start, and Saturday's series finale is also slated to begin at 1 pm.
 
All three games will feature a live video broadcast and live stats – the links for which can be found above or at GoArgos.com.
 
A LOOK AT UNION
Fans should not let Union's record deceive them. The Bulldogs took a win over Alabama Huntsville on the road early in the season and beat Valdosta State 5-3 in extra innings in mid-March, in Valdosta.
 
The Union pitching staff has struggled, pitching to a 7.47 ERA with 159 walks over 153.2 innings and a .343 opponent batting average, though primary starter Gabby Morris is third in the GSC with 76 strikeouts.
 
A few Union batters have stood out, including Sarah Smith. Smith leads the team in batting (.382), on-base percentage (.462), slugging (.603), and runs scored (13). Alyssa Ward has stolen eight bases and is batting .353, and Samantha McDaniel leads the team with 8 doubles and 14 RBIs.
 
ABOUT LAST WEEK
West Florida fell to No. 4 Valdosta State in a sweep over the weekend, dropping to 18-10 on the year and 12-6 in the Gulf South Conference. The final scores, however, might not tell the whole story from the weekend. The Argonauts matched VSU step-for-step for much of the series, and each game was a one-run contest in the fifth inning.
 
UWF can take some positives away from the weekend – Kara Wilson had two multi-hit games in the series, Jacquelynne Poling hit another home run to give her five round-trippers in her last nine games, and Kayanna Perez had a three-hit weekend, batting .333 with her first career extra-base hit on Saturday.
 
POWER HITTER KARA WILSON
Wilson's big weekend was no surprise for the senior from Odessa, Florida. Wilson hit .444 with two home runs and three RBIs, while she slugged 1.111 for the series.
 
This season, UWF's center fielder is fourth in the GSC in total bases (61), fifth in home runs (8), sixth in hits (31), and 10^th in RBIs (22). Her multi-homer game on Sunday was the first of her career and the first for an Argonaut since 2017, and her eight home runs this season are the most for UWF since 2016, when Kalyn Chapman hit nine.
 
WE ARE STILL SLUGGING
And Wilson isn't the only Argonaut putting up good power numbers. Five players are slugging .606 or better – Wilson, Jacquelynne Poling, Ally Merrill, Courtney McLellan, and Brett Leiva.
 
The Argonauts rank fifth in the country in home runs (32), and the team's .520 slugging percentage is in the top 30 in the country. More impressive, that team slugging percentage would be the best in program history by a wide margin.
 
The program record for slugging is .476, done by the historic 2005 UWF team that won 60 games and won the GSC Championship. UWF's 32 home runs are already the seventh-most for an Argonaut squad since 1995.
 
ARGONAUTS RANKED
The University of West Florida softball team has been ranked 22nd in the country in the latest National Fastpitch Coaches Association poll, released on Wednesday. West Florida is one of three GSC teams in the top 25, with No. 4 Valdosta State and No. 17 Alabama Huntsville joining the Argos in the poll. Fellow GSC school Auburn Montgomery is receiving votes.
 
The Argonauts rank among the elite in the country in several categories – the team is fifth in Division II in home runs (32), ninth in doubles (46), ninth in double plays turned (10), and 12th in shutouts (6).