MEMPHIS, Tenn. – The opening day of West Florida's series with Christian Brothers was a thriller. The Argonauts, led by senior pitcher Kelsey Sweatt in Game 1 and by several clutch at-bats in Game 2, swept the Lady Bucs on Saturday and improved to 13-3 on the year with an 8-0 Gulf South Conference record.
 
Sweatt gave UWF an outstanding start, striking out 16 CBU batters in seven innings in Game 1. Those 16 strikeouts are the second-most in program history, just two off the pace of Sandy Morgan in 2001 and Cindy Weibert in 1992.
 
In conference play this year, Sweatt is now 4-0 with a 0.67 ERA and 34 strikeouts in 21.0 innings, after two more innings of relief in Game 2.
 
Timely hits – particularly home runs – were the key in Game 2. West Florida hit four roundtrippers in all, with the game-winner coming from Laurynn Boggs in extra innings. Madelyn Vasquez hit one and Teala Howard hit two, in her first career multi-homer game.
 
Morgan Zettle led all batters with a .500 batting average on the day, and Boggs' grand slam in Game 2 gave her a team-high four RBIs.
 
UWF and Christian Brothers will wrap the series on Sunday at noon in Memphis.
 
GAME 1: UWF 9, CBU 2
Sweatt had little trouble with the Lady Bucs on Saturday, allowing just three hits over her seven innings of work. She walked only one batter against her 16 strikeouts, and she retired the final seven batters she faced.
 
Sweatt's 16 strikeouts were the most for an Argonaut since May 15, 2005, when Amber Browning struck out 16 against Florida Southern in 13 innings of work. Sandy Morgan needed 9 innings to strike out her program-record 18 batters in March 2001.
 
With that in mind, Sweatt struck out more batters in a seven-inning outing than any other Argonaut since at least 1994. She improved her record on the year to 6-3, and her 16 strikeouts in Game 1 are the most for any pitcher in a single game this season.
 
Jessica Ford and Madelyn Vasquez gave UWF a 2-0 lead in the first inning, with an RBI single from Ford and an RBI double from Vasquez.
 
Morgan Zettle hit the first of her two RBI triples in the top of the second, scoring Mallory Vining and giving UWF a 3-0 lead that would hold for three innings, until CBU picked up a pair of runs in the fifth.
 
Zettle tripled again in the top of the sixth to score Laurynn Boggs, and she scored on a wild pitch just moments later to extend the Argonauts lead to 5-2.
 
UWF put together a huge seventh inning to put the game well out of reach. Ford stole third and scored on a wild throw trying to catch her, Erin Moon doubled and brought in Vasquez, and Madilynne Webb hit her first home run of the season – a two-run shot to right-center – to bring in Moon and put the score at 9-2.
 
GAME 2: UWF 8, CBU 4
Game 2 was a back-and-forth contest, with UWF jumping ahead early before a mid-game rally from CBU.
 
Madelyn Vasquez hit a solo home run in the top of the second inning, putting her in third in the Gulf South Conference leaderboard this year with four round-trippers. Jessica Ford singled up the middle to score Laurynn Boggs in the third, giving UWF a 2-0 lead.
 
Montana Young worked out of a jam in the bottom of the first and kept CBU scoreless until the fourth. It was in the fourth inning that the Lady Bucs struck for four runs, scoring on a bases-loaded walk, a single, and a pair of errors that brought in two runs, before Jeya Prasad entered the game and got the final out of the inning.
 
Trailing 4-2 in the fifth, Teala Howard hit her first home run of a season – a line drive over the left-centerfield fence to cut the deficit to 4-3.
 
And with the game on the line in the seventh, Howard delivered again with another home run over the left-centerfield fence. The solo shot tied the game and marked Howard's first career multi-homer game. It is the first multi-home run game of the season for UWF and the first since Madilynne Webb hit two against Auburn Montgomery in the NCAA South Regional last season.
 
Kelsey Sweatt entered in relief in the bottom of the seventh with a runner on first. After CBU loaded the bases with just one away, Sweatt struck out the final two batters in the inning and took the game to extras.
 
West Florida loaded the bases in the top of the eighth, with a pair of walks from Angela Agurkis and Morgan Zettle, and Laurynn Boggs delivered the gamebreaker with a grand slam over the left field fence. It was the first home run of Boggs' career, and it gave UWF a late 8-4 lead.
 
Sweatt would finish the game in the bottom of the eighth with three popouts, improving to 7-3 on the year with a 2.11 ERA.