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VALDOSTA, Ga. – Grace Gilbert spun a shutout and freshman Madilynne Webb hit two home runs for the University of West Florida softball team, which defeated No. 3 Auburn Montgomery 5-0 in the NCAA Tournament on Thursday afternoon. The win put UWF's record at 32-14 for the year, while Auburn Montgomery dropped to 39-6.
 
West Florida will face 2-seed Valdosta State on Friday afternoon at 1 pm ET at Steel's Diamond at Blazer Park in Valdosta.
 
Gilbert and Webb, who both graduated from Chipley HS in Chipley, Florida, led the Argonauts to their third win over AUM this season, after the team won a regular-season series 2-1 on the road in March.
 
The shutout was the second of the year for Gilbert, improving the junior's record to 9-6. She allowed just two hits and pitched around a dangerous AUM lineup, scattering seven walks across her seven innings of work and staying out of major trouble all game long.
 
The game started as many Argonaut games do – Teala Howard led off with a single and moved from first to third on a sacrifice bunt from Mika Garcia. UWF then opened up the scoring with a squeeze bunt from catcher Jacquelynne Poling to get a 1-0 lead.
 
Freshman designated player Madilynne Webb would drive in the rest of UWF's runs for the day, with the first home runs of her UWF career. Webb led off the third inning with her first home run to stretch West Florida's lead to 2-0, and she drove in Kara Wilson and pinch-runner Chelsea Dumas with a three-run shot in the fourth inning to cap off the scoring.
 
Webb is the second Argonaut this year to hit two home runs in a game, joining Wilson, who also shad her two-homer game at Valdosta State. She is the first Argo freshman with multiple home runs in a game since 2017, and the first Argonaut a multi-home run game in the postseason since Rachel Wright homered twice against Shorter in the 2016 Gulf South Conference Tournament.
 
Gilbert recorded UWF's ninth shutout of the season, and Thursday marked just the second time this year that AUM has been shutout.
 
Since the start of April, Gilbert has been outstanding, with a 1.84 ERA over 9 appearances. In the 45.2 innings she has pitched in that time, Gilbert has a 5-2 record with 5 complete games and a .207 opponent batting average.