COCOA, Fla. – Two strong relief appearances and timely offense helped the 17th-ranked University of West Florida softball team to a sweep over Barry and Florida Tech on Sunday afternoon. The Argonauts improved to 5-3 with the wins, and will enter Gulf South Conference play next weekend.
 
Teala Howard and Madelyn Vasquez led UWF with five hits apiece over the weekend, while Kelsey Hodges led the team with six RBIs. Additionally, Vasquez and Jessica Ford hit the first two home runs of the season for West Florida on Sunday.
 
Jeya Prasad and Kelsey Sweatt combined for a 2.00 ERA over the weekend, holding opponents to a .180 batting average.
 
West Florida starts Gulf South Conference play next weekend with a series against West Georgia at the UWF Softball Complex. The series starts with a 1 pm doubleheader on Saturday, February 19, and a single game at 1 pm on Sunday, February 20 will wrap the series.
 
GAME 1: No. 17 UWF 3, Barry 2 (8 innings)
A two-run Madelyn Vasquez home run in the first inning gave West Florida the early 2-0 lead, as she drove in Jessica Ford. But Barry evened the score with a bases-loaded walk and an RBI single in the top of the second.
 
Neither team put together much offense from the third through the seventh innings, and Jeya Prasad turned in a quality start for West Florida. The freshman went 5.1 innings with just three hits allowed, two earned runs, and four strikeouts.
 
Kelsey Sweatt entered the game in the top of the sixth and finished off the inning to keep the game tied at 2-2.
 
Barry led off the seventh with back-to-back singles, and put two runners in scoring position with a sacrifice bunt. In a jam, Sweatt got a groundout back to the circle and got a strikeout to end the inning.
 
UWF still struggled to get its offense going through the seventh and the game headed to extra innings.
 
With the international tiebreaker rules in effect and a runner starting the inning on second with no outs, Sweatt got the three Bucs batters out in order and took the game to the bottom half of the eighth.
 
Laurynn Boggs started the inning on second for UWF and scored the winning run after multiple wild pitches took her to third and brought her across the plate.
 
Sweatt earned the win and improved to 3-3 on the year, striking out two and walking just one over 2.2 innings of scoreless relief.
 
Teala Howard and Madelyn Vasquez each had two hits, and Vasquez had her second multi-RBI game of the weekend.
 
 
GAME 2: No. 17 UWF 6, Florida Tech 3
Jeya Prasad improved her season record to 2-0 with 4.1 innings of nearly perfect relief in the second game of the day. A lone walk was the only batter that reached against her, after she entered the game in the third.
 
West Florida got ahead in the first inning when Kayla Mayo scored on a grounder from Jessica Ford, giving UWF the 1-0 advantage. Angela Agurkis helped stretch the UWF lead to 2-0 with a leadoff double in the second inning, coming around on a fielder's choice when Kelsey Hodges put a groundball in play.
 
Jessica Ford hit her first career home run in the top of the third to extend the lead to 3-0, making her first multi-RBI game of the season.
 
Florida Tech evened the score in the bottom half of the inning with a two-run single and a bases-loaded walk, but the tie did not last long.
 
In the sixth, Angela Agurkis led off with a double and advanced to third on a bunt single from Erin Moon. Kelsey Hodges drove in pinch runners Laurynn Boggs and Morgan Zettle with a single up the middle, giving UWF a 5-3 lead after five-and-a-half.
 
West Florida extended the lead in the seventh when Vasquez added another RBI, bringing in Teala Howard after a leadoff single in the inning.
 
Hodges had her second three-RBI day of the weekend, and Agurkis had her first multi-hit game of the season.