The UNI women’s softball team just increased their season record to 24-9 after a 2-1 series victory over Evansville.

A double-header on Friday, March 25 resulted in a 6-0 victory for the Panthers in their first game, following with a tough 6-1 defeat against the Purple Aces.

In their 6-0 victory game, many points did not come until the end of the game, where they would deliver the initial dagger after Anna Varriano hit it out of the park and put three points on the board for UNI.

After a 5-0 run, Micalla Rettinger stepped up to bat and hit a home run of her own, adding to the lead and sealing the deal as Evansville could not get anything going for them in the bottom of the seventh.

On Saturday, the Panthers won the game as well as the series with a final score of 2-1. Evansville started the bottom of the first with an RBI and the first points of the game.

UNI wasted no time to respond to the deficit in the very next inning. Alyssa Buchanan sailed the ball towards right field to bring Kristin Lock to home base for an RBI of her own.

Later in the second inning, Buchanan stole second base and Kennedy Bailey scored on an error to put the Panthers up 2-1 for the rest of the game.

To finish out the series, senior pitcher Chelsea Ross totaled 12 strike outs against the Purple Aces.

This was a season high for Ross, passing her previous high against Ole Miss where she sent 11 batters back to the dugout empty-handed.

After a long stretch of away games, the Panthers’ softball team will play their next three games at home. The first two will feature a double-header against Indiana State on April 2 and 3, followed by Iowa State on April 6.