CARROLLTON, Ga. – The University of West Florida softball team used a pair of huge offensive innings and great pitching in Thursday's doubleheader sweep over West Georgia. UWF is now 17-14 on the year with a 9-10 Gulf South Conference record.
Montana Young,
Jeya Prasad, and
Alayna Lowery combined for a 1.00 ERA over 14 innings of action on Thursday, with 11 strikeouts and just three walks. West Georgia batters hit only .174 against the Argonauts staff.
The offense was as strong as it has been all season for UWF. Freshman
Emma Brice homered twice in Game 2, giving her a team-high five home runs on the year. She also has four roundtrippers in her last three games, dating back to last week's series against Montevallo.
Erin Moon led UWF with an .833 batting average and she and
Hannah Harper each had five hits. UWF hit .455 as a team, with
Madelyn Vasquez and
Kelsey Hodges each hitting .400 or better for the day.
The series concludes with a single game on Friday at noon ET.
GAME 1: UWF 14, West Georgia 0
Montana Young was as sharp as she had been all season in Game 1, and the offense did more than enough to give UWF a win.
Young picked up her 10th win of the season, striking out 8 and allowing only 3 hits in 7.0 innings of work. She did not issue a walk and retired the first 10 batters that she faced. Thursday marked her third consecutive start in which Young has struck out at least eight batters.
The offense was highlighted by a nine-run seventh inning, but UWF got out to a 5-0 lead after the sixth.
Madelyn Vasquez hit her first home run of the year – a solo shot to right-center field – to give West Florida a 1-0 advantage in the second.
Kelsey Hodges then lifted a sac fly in the third to score
Hannah Harper and singled in the sixth to score
Ayana Powell.
Jessica Ford also picked up an RBI single in the sixth, and
Chelsea Dumas hit her first home run of the year, putting UWF up 5-0.
Then the seventh inning rally came. It started with RBI singles from Hodges and Vasquez, and Dumas plated another run with a grounder to third.
Laurynn Boggs then scored Vasquez with a fielder's choice before Harper hit her first career home run.
Erin Moon's grounder was misplayed by the UWG defense, brought in
Bella Holliday, and capped off the scoring.
Hodges led the team with four RBIs, and Moon had a team-high three hits. Harper, Holliday, Hodges, and Vasquez each had two hits.
Young has a 0.54 ERA over her last starts, which stretches 26.0 innings. She has struck out 30 strikeouts in those four starts.
GAME 2 UWF 13, West Georgia 2
UWF seemed to have the game in hand after the fifth, but the Argonauts used another massive seventh inning to put Game 2 well out of reach.
Jeya Prasad got the start and earned the win after throwing 4.0 innings. She allowed two runs and just three hits, before
Alayna Lowery finished the game with three scoreless innings of relief, striking out three batters.
The Argonauts got out to a quick 2-0 lead after in inning in Game 2, with an RBI double from
Erin Moon and an RBI single from
Madelyn Vasquez. Vasquez struck again in the third with a sacrifice fly that brought in
Hannah Harper.
West Florida added some insurance with three runs in the top of the fifth, after West Georgia plated two in the fourth.
Ayana Powell drove an RBI single to left, and
Emma Brice homered a batter later to stretch the lead to 6-2.
Powell and Brice struck again in the seventh – Powell belted a two-run single to center before Brice hit her second home run of the game, giving UWF the 11-2 advantage.
Harper singled and Moon lifted a sacrifice fly to give UWF its final 13-2 win.
#ARGOS#
