LIVINGSTON – Top 20 teams square off Saturday at the UWA Softball Complex when top-ranked Valdosta State visits 19th ranked West Alabama for a Gulf South Conference doubleheader. First pitch for game one is scheduled for 2 p.m.

The defending national champion, Valdosta State is 18-3 overall, 5-1 in league play after sweeping West Florida earlier this week. West Alabama is 11-4 overall and 2-2 in the GSC after splitting a doubleheader at West Georgia on Wednesday.

“This is a great opportunity to see how we match up against what the polls have determined is the best team in the country,” UWA head coach Will Atkinson said. “GSC softball teams never get a weekend off. Every series is important at conference, regional and national levels.”

West Alabama and Valdosta State are the top two hitting softball teams in the GSC. The Tigers are batting .405 as a team, the Blazers .365. UWA and VSU are also ranked in the top two in home runs, runs batted in and doubles in team categories.

Left fielder Whitney Brown and catcher Rebecca Schick lead the Tigers and the GSC in hitting, both sporting a .520 batting average. Not surprisingly, Brown and Schick have been named the last two GSC players of the week.

Sunday offers a different take when the Tigers are host to West Florida, who leads the conference in pitching with a 1.85 earned run average. The Argos, 10-8 and 4-2 after getting swept at Valdosta State on Wednesday, have allowed just three home runs all year. West Alabama has hit 21. That doubleheader also begins at 2 p.m.

“We host two very good ball clubs this weekend, and for possibly the first time all season the weather should not be an issue, ” Atkinson said. “Weekends like this one show you why the GSC is considered one of the best, if not the best, softball conferences in NCAA Division II.”