PENSACOLA, Fla. | The University of Alabama in Huntsville softball team spit with No. 17 West Florida on Saturday, winning 8-3 in the day's first game before being tripped up 7-3 in the nightcap. The Chargers are now 21-14 (11-9 Gulf South Conference), while UWF is 22-10 (15-5 GSC).
 
The two teams will wrap up the series with the deciding game on Sunday. First pitch is slated for 1 p.m.
 
UAH 8, West Florida 3
Kiara Akles drove in six runs thanks to two mighty swings of the bat, as she hit a two-run homer before following that up with a grand slam to help the Chargers to the victory.
 
Five of the team's seven hits came from the first three spots in the lineup as Akles was 2-for-3 from the three hole while Kaylee Vaught was 2-for-2 with two walks and three runs scored from the top of the order.
 
At the second spot in the lineup, Shelby Booker had a hit and scored twice while also logging a sacrifice.
 
Layton Murphy tossed 6.2 innings, scattering six hits and allowing the three runs while striking out five, and the fifth-place pitcher on UAH's all-time wins list picked up her eighth victory of the season.
 
Akles got the scoring started in the top of the first when she homered after Vaught had doubled to start the game, and the score would be 2-1 after West Florida got a run in the bottom of the second.
 
Then in the top of the third after the first three Chargers had reached, Akles would step into the box again and give herself homers in consecutive at-bats with the bases-loaded long fly to give the Chargers a 6-1 advantage.
 
The grand slam is the fifth for Akles in her career, and the six RBI is a single-game personal best for the Heflin, Alabama, native who recorded her fifth career multi-home run game.
 
West Florida would get two of the runs back in the bottom of the third to make it a 6-3 game, and the contest remained that way until the seventh when a Sadie Thompson RBI base hit and a bases-loaded walk from Lila Young helped create what would be the 8-3 final.
 
West Florida 7, UAH 3
UWF limited UAH to just three hits in the contest and scored the seven runs late to split the doubleheader. 
 
All three hits for the Chargers were for extra bases as Sadie Thompson doubled, Shelby Booker hit a triple, and Kaylee Vaught hit her third home run of the season.
 
Megan Shurtz took the loss in the circle for the Chargers, allowing six hits and five runs of which three were earned, and she struck out three to move her season total to 67.
 
The Chargers grabbed the first lead of the contest as Alaina Hampton led off the visiting half of the second being hit by a pitch and eventually coming around to score on a wild pitch, and UAH would make it a 3-0 lead after the third when Vaught homered and Akles hit a sac fly to drive in another run.
 
Akles surges to the team lead in RBI as she now has 36 on the season including 11 in the past three games.
 
The guests continued to lead after the fifth when UWF crossed the plate twice, but a six-run sixth proved to be the difference as the Argos took the 7-3 decision.