Softball

Armstrong State Handles West Florida, 7-3

#3 Armstrong State 7, #6 West Florida 3 | Final Stats
SALEM, Va. – Armstrong State used timely hitting to get by West Florida, 7-3, on Thursday night at the NCAA Division II Softball Championship.
 
The Pirates (37-12) scored all seven of their runs with two outs. Macy Coleman went 2-for-2, including a two-run home run, and finished with three RBI. Jane Trazska was 2-for-3 with two RBI and pitched a complete game for Armstrong State. She improved her record to 18-7 on the year after allowing three runs on four hits in seven innings of work.
 
“It was huge to start the tournament with a win,” said Armstrong State head coach Kim Dean. “West Florida is a great team and we knew it was going to be a tough game. We wanted to start out the game energized and ready, and getting a two-run bomb to start any game puts less pressure on our pitcher and helps us get faster through our lineup.”
 
West Florida (45-14) was limited to just four hits in the game. Callan Taylor had two of those hits, including a two-run home run in the fourth inning. Becca Taylor (27-9) took the loss in the circle giving up seven runs on six hits with four strikeouts and four walks in five innings. Sarah Maloney gave up one hit in relief for the Argonauts.
 
“I just don’t think we came out ready to play,” West Florida head coach Melissa Paul said. “We didn’t do a very good job making adjustments and we got jammed a couple of times in some big opportunities.”
 
Armstrong State advances to take on Minnesota State tomorrow at 1:30 p.m. West Florida will play Southern Indiana at 6:30 p.m. in an elimination game.
 
Coleman got things started for Armstrong State in the second inning with a two-run homer to right field. West Florida pushed across an unearned run in the top of the third, but then the Pirates made it 4-1 in the bottom half of the inning on a Jane Trzaska single up the middle that drove home Katie Collins and Natalie Corbin.
 
The Argonauts made 4-3 in the top of the fourth Callan Taylor’s two-run home run down the left field line. Armstrong State then posted its third, two-run inning of the game in the bottom of the fifth on an Autumn Parrish RBI single and a bases loaded walk that scored Trzaska. Collins tacked on an insurance run in the sixth to add to the cushion for the Pirates.