COLUMBUS, Ga. – It was a pitchers' duel in Game 1 and a slugfest in Game 2, as the University of West Florida softball team split a doubleheader on the road with Columbus State on Wednesday afternoon.
 
West Florida is now 19-8 on the year after the split.
 
Madelyn Vasquez led UWF with a .500 batting average on the day and drew five walks, good for a .778 slugging percentage. She hit a solo home run in the fifth inning of Game 2 to tie things up.
 
Kayla Mayo and Teala Howard each led the team with four hits. Howard picked up three doubles, and Mayo homered to put West Florida on the board in Game 2.
 
Also in Game 2, Kelsey Hodges drove in four runs and hit her first career home run, and Ayana Powell picked up her first career hits and RBIs.
 
West Florida is back in action over the weekend with a series at Montevallo on Saturday and Sunday.
 
GAME 1: UWF 0, Columbus State 1
Kayla Mayo picked up her third three-hit game of the year, and Teala Howard added two hits of her own, but that would be all the offense UWF managed in the first half of the doubleheader.
 
West Florida put a threat together in the first, but a perfect throw home after Erin Moon's single to left field caught Mayo at the plate to keep the Argonauts scoreless.
 
The teams traded zeroes for the first two-and-a-half innings, before CSU scored one in the bottom of the third inning on a squeeze bunt. Sweatt induced a pair of grounders to Madelyn Vasquez and Mayo to end the inning.
 
Kelsey Sweatt turned in a solid start, with just four hits and one unearned run allowed. Though she was charged with the loss, Sweatt dropped her season ERA to 3.06 and opponents are still hitting just .215 against her.
 
UWF put multiple runners on in the second, third, and seventh innings but could not pick up a run against CSU and starting pitcher Hannah Rose Corbin, who improved to 13-5.
 
Vasquez drew three walks in the game, stretching her on-base streak to 25 games.
 
GAME 2: UWF 12, Columbus State 8
A couple of late rallies decided Game 2 for West Florida. Trailing 4-0, the Argonauts scored six in the top of the fifth and six more in the top of the seventh for the 12-8 win.
 
Kelsey Hodges led the team with four RBIs, and UWF got three RBIs from Kayla Mayo and two more from Ayana Powell.
 
CSU's Morgan Elston broke the scoreless tie in the second inning with a home run to left field. Kenzie Bayer added another home run in the fourth, stretching the Columbus State lead to 4-0.
 
West Florida bounced back immediately in the fifth, with a leadoff single from Powell followed by a double from Teala Howard. Mayo continued the rally with a three-run home run – her second roundtripper of the season – to cut the deficit to 3-4.
 
Just a batter later, Madelyn Vasquez blasted her ninth home run of the season to tie the game up at 4-4, and Kelsey Hodges gave UWF its first lead of the day with a two-run home run to dead center field.
 
Kelsey Sweatt entered the game in relief in the bottom of the fifth and earned her first save of the season. The senior went three innings and was ultimately charged with four runs.
 
Starter Montana Young threw 4.0 innings and struck out four but was charged with four runs, with the two CSU home runs. She left the game in line for the win after UWF took the lead in the top of the fifth, improving to 6-0 on the year.  
 
West Florida piled on more offense in the top of the seventh. Hodges doubled to straightaway center field to bring in two more runs, and Madilynne Webb added another run with an RBI single, putting the score at 9-4.
 
Powell lifted a two-run double to left-center and Howard drove an RBI double to left field a batter later, giving UWF a 12-4 lead. The RBIs were the first two of Powell's career, and her two hits on Wednesday were also her first.
 
CSU added four runs in the seventh, but Sweatt got a foulout to end the game and give UWF the win.