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STATS | VIDEO
 
PENSACOLA, Fla. – The University of West Florida softball team visits Mississippi College on Thursday for a nonconference doubleheader in Clinton, Mississippi. West Florida (17-3, 12-0 Gulf South Conference) is on a 14-game winning streak, dating back to February 13.
 
Mississippi College is 11-9 overall and has a 4-5 GSC record. In the current GSC scheduling model, Mississippi College is not on West Florida's rotation of conference opponents. It will be the same situation next Tuesday when UWF hosts Union in a nonconference matchup.
 
Fans can follow along with the game through a live broadcast and live stats. Links for each can be found above or at GoArgos.com.
 
First pitch is scheduled for noon at the MC Softball Complex in Clinton.
 
For all information on the team, follow @UWFSoftball on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
 
ABOUT LAST WEEK
UWF's offense was explosive again last weekend, hitting .347 and slugging .684 with 8 home runs against West Alabama. The Argonauts swept the series, improving to 12-0 in conference play, with two come-from-behind wins on the road against the Tigers.
 
The highlight of the weekend came on Saturday, with the Argonauts trailing 13-11 in the top of the seventh with two outs. Following a Teala Howard single to left field, Kayla Mayo, Jessica Ford, and Madelyn Vasquez delievered back-to-back-to-back home runs to take a 15-13 lead and pick up the series sweep.
 
With another big offensive week, UWF has now scored at least eight runs in nine consecutive games.
 
ABOUT MISSISSIPPI COLLEGE
Mississippi College is always a tough matchup with West Florida. The Argonauts hold a 13-5 record against the Lady Choctaws since 2015 and have won six matchups in a row, but they haven't normally been easy wins.
 
MC is second in the GSC in runs per game, at 6.7, and the team will bring a well-rounded offense to go along with a strong pitching staff.
 
Catcher McCall Lee is MC's top bat, as she's hitting .413 and leads the team with 21 RBIs. Jenna Ergle and AnneMarie Peavy each have five home runs on the year, Brooke Fagan and Jordan LaFosse are both hitting well over .300.
 
Avery Sanders and Avery Barnett are two of the top pitchers in the league as well. Barnett is fifth in the GSC in ERA (2.43), while Sanders is eighth in ERA (2.76) and 11th in opponent batting average (.245).
 
A MADELYN VASQUEZ BREAKOUT
Sophomore Madelyn Vasquez has been one of the top hitters in the GSC and the country this season. She continued her tear through the conference last weekend at West Alabama with her best series yet – she hit .417 and slugged 1.417 with four home runs and eight RBIs at UWA.
 
The Milton, Florida, native ranks 12th in Division II with 8 home runs and is 17th in slugging percentage (.917) and 20th in RBIs (28). She also leads the GSC in OPS (1.415), is second in slugging, RBIs, and homers, and is third in doubled (7), fifth in on-base percentage (.500), and eighth in batting (.390).
 
Vasquez is riding a nine-game hitting streak and has at least one RBI in each of her last nine games, with seven home runs in her last nine as well. 
 
JESSICA FORD'S OFFENSIVE EXPLOSION
Junior outfielder Jessica Ford has been on a hot streak through the Gulf South Conference, and she kept it going at West Alabama last weekend. A transfer from nearby Pensacola State, Ford hit .417 with three home runs and a double in the series in Livingston. Her final home run of the weekend turned out to be the game-winner on Saturday and was the second of three consecutive Argonaut homers in the seventh inning of that game.
 
On the year, Ford leads the GSC with 23 runs scored, is third with 5 home runs, and is in the top 10 in the conference in slugging, OPS, doubles, and RBIs.
 
SLUGGING AS USUAL
It took the UWF offense a couple of weeks to heat up, but the lineup has been about as good as ever since the start of conference play. West Florida is slugging .688 in GSC action and leads the league in slugging overall this season, at .535.
 
UWF's .535 slugging percentage would shatter the program record of .494 set last year. That is no surprise for an Ashliegh McLean-run team – in the four years that McLean has been UWF's head coach, the team has posted four of the top six slugging percentage marks in program history, including this season. Last year's team set the UWF record by slugging .494 and hit a program-best 51 home runs. The teams in 2019 and 2020 slugged .449 and .454, respectively, which currently rank as the fifth- and sixth-best slugging percentages in team history.
 
RISP-Y BUSINESS
West Florida leads the conference in runs per game this year, scoring more than 7 per contest. That fact makes the following less surprising: UWF is hitting .396 with runners in scoring position.
 
Naturally, the heart of the Argonauts order has been a big part of this. Jessica Ford leads the team with 10 hits in 19 at-bats with runners in scoring position, while Madelyn Vasquez is hitting .563 (9-for-16), and Angela Agurkis is hitting .583 (7-for-12).
 
Seemingly everyone has been productive in this situation. Even at the top of the lineup, Teala Howard is hitting .500 (7-for-14) and Kayla Mayo is hitting .357 (5-for-14).