April 5, 2008

PENSACOLA, Fla. - The West Florida baseball team is the reigning Gulf South Conference champion, and they have begun the 2008 season with a 4-5 record in conference play. Beginning at 6:00 p.m. Saturday, the Argos play 20th ranked West Alabama in a three game series. The Tigers are 5-4 in the conference and tied for second. The series includes a single game on Saturday, and a doubleheader slated for Noon on Sunday.

The games will be broadcast via stretch internet for anyone to listen to for free. Go to the UWF home page, and look for the stretch internet link on the right side of the page, and click on the link for instructions to listen. The game times have recently changed due to wet weather in Livingston, Alabama. Saturday will now be a single game at 6:00 pm, and a doubleheader is slated for Sunday, beginning at 12:00 Noon.

The Argos are hitting .306 this weekend, and play the top offensive team in the conference in West Alabama. Kyle Andrews leds the Argos offensively with a .360 average, while Greg Pron, Scott Beckwith, Jimmy Boswell, and Jackson Woodard are all hitting above .320 for the season thus far. Pron leads the Argos with 34 RBI's, while Jon Reed, Gregg Burkel, and Craig Westcott each have three home runs to pace UWF in the power stats. Andrews is among the conference leaders with 46 runs scored thus far. Meanwhile, UWA's Rob Dahlberg is the conference leader with a .467 batting average.

West Florida pitching has been paced so far by Kyle Ramsey and David Pedro. Meanwhile, Billy Whitaker has posted the teams only complete game shutout. Ramsey has two conference wins with complete games as he defeated Montevallo 12-1, and topped North Alabama 4-1. His performances in the conference games earned him the GSC pitcher of the week awar. Ramsey is also ranked in the top 15 in the nation in fewest walks per 9 innings, as he has become the ace of the Argo staff.

West Florida is tied with North Alabama for fifth place in the conference standings at 4-5; however, they are just one game back of West Alabama and Montevallo, who are tied for second place at 5-4. Meanwhile, West Georgia is sandwiched in between with a .500 record of 3-3. Valdosta State is in first place with a 6-0 record. The teams are fighting to be in the top four positions to earn a trip to the conference tournament in Millington, Tennessee beginning May 3rd.