VALDOSTA, Ga. – The University of West Florida softball team took advantage of miscues and got a late rally to win Game 1 of its series with No. 22 Valdosta State on Friday evening. Montana Young earned the win, improving to 13-7, Kayla Mayo drove in three RBIs, and the Argonauts moved to 21-20 on the year.
 
West Florida picked up the first run of the game in the top of the second, when Madelyn Vasquez drove a one-out triple to left field and scored on a Kelsey Hodges single to right.
 
Starting pitcher Montana Young was solid through the first three innings, working around a single and a walk in the first two innings before a perfect third. Valdosta State would take its first lead of the game in the fourth with a three-run home run, however.
 
But UWF battled back and got a leadoff double in the fifth from Kayanna Perez. Laurynn Boggs and Kayla Mayo put down back-to-back successful sacrifice bunts to bring in Perez and cut the deficit to 3-2.
 
The Argonauts piled on more runs in the sixth, putting four runs on the board to take a 6-4 lead after six innings.
 
The first of those runs came on a Boggs grounder that resulted in a VSU error and scored Vasquez to tie the game. Kayla Mayo followed with a sharp single up the middle to give UWF a 5-3 lead, and Hannah Harper brought in Boggs with a single chopped to left field, putting the score at 6-3.
 
VSU would pick up a run in the sixth on a UWF error and another on a solo home run in the seventh, but a groundball to Mayo resulted in a 5-4-3 double play to end the game and finish off UWF's win.
 
Four Argonauts had multi-hit games, with Harper, Vasquez, Hodges, and Perez all tallying two hits apiece.
 
The series concludes on Saturday with a doubleheader, slated for a 11 am ET start at Blazer Park.