GSC CHAMPIONSHIP HOMEPAGE
 
VALDOSTA, Ga. – The University of West Florida softball team split a doubleheader with No. 22 Valdosta State on Saturday and won the series, improving to 22-21 on the year with a 13-16 Gulf South Conference record.
 
With a win in Game 1 of the series on Friday evening, West Florida clinched a spot in the Gulf South Conference Championship, which begins on Wednesday, May 3, at Choccolocco Park in Oxford, Alabama.
 
West Florida will start its postseason journey with 1-seed Alabama Huntsville at 6 pm on Wednesday. 
 
Freshman Emma Brice hit her seventh home run of the season in Game 1 – the most for a UWF freshman since Blake Baskin hit seven in 1998, and just a few off the record of 11 by Natalie Manis (2003).
 
GAME 1: UWF 3, #22 Valdosta State 4
West Florida didn't make it easy for Gulf South Conference wins leader Samantha Richards, as Erin Moon blasted her third home run of the season to give UWF a 2-0 lead in the first inning.
 
Valdosta State would take a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the second with three RBI singles, and the score would stay there until the sixth inning.
 
Emma Brice tied the game in the sixth with a leadoff home run – her seventh round-tripper of the year.
 
Pitcher Alayna Lowery got out of a bases-loaded jam in the bottom of the sixth, but VSU was able to scratch across the walkoff run in the seventh for a 4-3 win.
 
Hannah Harper was solid over 2.0 innings in her start in the circle, and Lowery kept VSU off the board through 4.2 innings of relief before the walkoff hit. She lowered her season ERA to 2.07 in the relief effort.
 
Brice and Kayla Mayo each had two hits in the game for UWF.
 
GAME 2: UWF 8, #22 Valdosta State 5
The Lady Blazers struck early with a three-run homer and an RBI single in the first two innings to take a 4-0 lead. But, as usual, West Florida did not go away easily.
 
Kayla Mayo drove a one-out double to left field and scored on a throwing error to score the Argonauts' first run, and Erin Moon ripped a single to right-center to score Hannah Harper and Chelsea Dumas, who doubled.
 
West Florida kept the momentum going in the third, taking a 6-4 lead with RBI doubles from Laurynn Boggs and Mayo, and an RBI single from Harper.
 
That was before Dumas blasted her second home run of the year, a line drive to dead center field that scored Harper and stretched UWF's lead to 8-4.
 
Valdosta State's Taylor Macera hit a solo home run in the bottom of the fourth, cutting UWF's lead to 8-5, but the game was officially called in the fifth inning with bad weather in the Valdosta area.