PENSACOLA, Fla. – The 21st-ranked University of West Florida softball team took two wins against West Georgia on Saturday afternoon, led by powerful offense and some strong pitching. West Florida is now 7-3 on the year and 2-0 in Gulf South Conference play, and the Argonauts will go for the series sweep on Sunday.
 
Teala Howard and Jessica Ford led West Florida with four hits apiece on Saturday, and Howard and Madelyn Vasquez each scored four runs in the doubleheader.
 
Kelsey Sweatt, Jeya Prasad, and Montana Young pitched to a combined 2.10 ERA with 15 strikeouts against the Wolves. The potent UWG offense hit just .205 and drew two walks on the day.
 
Angela Agurkis and Brett Leiva each hit timely home runs that powered the Argonaut offense to big innings. Those home runs were the first for each player this season.
 
UWF will wrap the series on Sunday, with first pitch at 1 pm from the UWF Softball Complex.
 
GAME 1: UWF 9, West Georgia 1 (5 innings)
Kelsey Sweatt turned in a dominant start in the first game of the series, striking out a season-high eight UWG batters over five innings of work in a run-rule victory. The senior struck out the side in the top of the first and struck out two more in the second, improving to 4-3 on the year.
 
And the UWF offense gave Sweatt plenty of cushion early on. Madelyn Vasquez and Erin Moon led off the second with a pair of singles, and Morgan Zettle brought in the first run of the day with a grounder to shortstop, scoring Vasquez.
 
The offense broke the game open in the third. Jessica Ford brought in Teala Howard with an infield single, Vasquez and Moon reached after each being hit by a pitch, and Angela Agurkis hit her first home run of the season with a grand slam to dead center field.
 
That homer was Agurkis's fifth in her UWF career, and Zettle scored on a wild pitch to stretch the lead to 7-0.
 
West Georgia bounced back with a run in the top of the fourth, and Jessica Ford ripped a double to right-center, putting the score at the final 9-1.
 
Sweatt finished off the game with a pair of strikeouts and a flyout in the fifth to get the win.
 
GAME 2: UWF 11, West Georgia 3 (5 innings)
The Argonauts got another explosive inning in Game 2 to put them in the driver's seat, and that would be the story of the game.
 
Montana Young got her first start of the year, going 2.1 innings and striking out three, but UWG was able to pick up three runs against the sophomore. Jeya Prasad entered the game in the third and threw 2.2 scoreless innings of relief and striking out 4, on the way to improving to 3-0 on the year.
 
West Georgia picked up a run in the first on an Alley Taylor single, but West Florida jumped out to a 4-1 lead after an inning. Teala Howard led off with a triple and scored on a Kayla Mayo double to even the score.
 
Vasquez doubled to left-center two batters later, scoring Mayo from third and Ford from first, and Agurkis delivered her fifth RBI of the afternoon with a single through the left side.
 
West Georgia cut back into the lead in the third, with a home run from Hannah Scarbrough and an RBI single from Alley Taylor, putting the score at 4-3 in favor of the Argonauts.
 
With the UWG threat still looming in the third, Jeya Prasad entered the circle and ended the Wolves' threat with a pair of strikeouts.
 
West Georgia scrapped together another threat in the fourth, when Isabella Pinto reached third after a pair of Argonaut errors. Scarbrough hit a grounder to Vasquez at first, and Vasquez made a strong throw to the plate to get Pinto out and keep the score at 4-3.
 
The Argonauts offense blew up again in the bottom of the fourth, putting six runs on the board. The highlight of the inning was Brett Leiva's first home run of the season – a three-run shot over the left-centerfield fence. UWF also saw Chelsea Dumas score on a dropped throw to first on a Teala Howard single, and Howard and Kayla Mayo scored on a wild pitch and a passed ball, respectively.
 
Jessica Ford hit a walkoff double in the bottom of the fifth to finish off the run-rule victory, scoring Laurynn Boggs.