PENSACOLA, Fla. – It was another shutout on Sunday afternoon, as Jeya Prasad threw six scoreless innings and the University of West Florida softball team defeated Shorter 8-0 in six innings. West Florida improved to 11-3 on the season and 6-0 in the Gulf South Conference – good for the most wins in league play.
 
It was another banner weekend for UWF. The pitching staff – Prasad, Kelsey Sweatt, and Montana Young – did not allow a run in the entire series against Shorter, striking out 18 batters in 17.0 combined innings, with just five hits allowed to a pesky Hawks lineup.
 
Offensively, the Argonauts hit .418, with seven players hitting .400 or better for the series. Madelyn Vasquez tallied a team-best nine RBIs, with multiple RBIs in each game of the series and two home runs. Angela Agurkis and Erin Moon each hit .714, and Agurkis added three doubles and her first home run of the season, while Moon had two doubles and a triple on the weekend. Teala Howard hit .636 with a team-high seven hits, also stealing four bases.
 
Morgan Zettle and Jessica Ford each hit .500 – Ford had a double, a triple, and five walks, and Zettle had five RBIs, while going 4-for-8.
 
On Sunday afternoon, the Argonauts were never in much trouble. Two Hawks batters reached base in the second and third innings, but Prasad got out of the inning unharmed both times, with popouts. Just two more batters reached from the fourth through the sixth against Prasad, who improved to 4-0 on the year and has a 1.56 ERA.
 
The freshman Moon brought in the first run of the day, with an RBI double in the second that scored Agurkis. UWF added three more runs in the third with RBI doubles from Ford, Vasquez, and Moon again.
 
UWF put up another-three spot in the fifth, driving in all runs with two outs. Vasquez and Agurkis started the rally with back-to-back home runs, and Zettle singled through the left side to score Laurynn Boggs.
 
With a 7-0 lead in the sixth, Vasquez drove in her third run of the day. A grounder to Shorter second baseman Payton Tuder allowed Howard to score and end the game.
 
UWF had six doubles on Sunday – the most in a game for the Argos since exactly four years ago, when the team hosted Miles and had seven doubles on February 27, 2019.
 
Howard's two hits today give her a GSC-best 23 on the year – she also leads the league with 10 stolen bases and her .489 batting average is the best in the league among players with at least 25 at-bats. With a double and a home run on Sunday, Agurkis lifted her slugging percentage to .909 on the season, the second-best mark in the conference. She, Ford, and Vasquez each rank second in the GSC with five doubles, and Vasquez now ranks fifth in the GSC with three home runs and 17 RBIs.
 
West Florida will head to Memphis, Tennessee, for a series against Christian Brothers on Saturday, March 5, and Sunday, March 6. For all information on the team, follow @UWFSoftball on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.