The Northern Iowa softball team traveled out West for the DeMarini Classic in Las Vegas hosted by University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNVL). UNI came into the tournament 4-1 and ended up playing three competitive games.

They would have played five total games, but rain on Saturday canceled both the Boise State and Brigham Young University (BYU) games. By the end of the weekend UNI had gone 1-2 at the tournament.

The tournament opener for the Panthers came against the tournament host, the Northern Las Vegas Rebel. The first inning saw UNI power in three runs to start the game. Brittney Roby and Courtney Krodinger took advantage of a couple catcher errors to get the first two runs. Sammy Bunch would also round the bases soon after.

UNLV answered with three runs in the first and two in the second inning. In the third, Bailey Lange hit a two-run homerun and Abby Downs accompanied her by scoring on a wild pitch. UNLV did tie it in third a six all. Macey Wolfe scored in the fourth on Lange’s fourth RBI. Two runs by UNLV in the fourth were the final scores of the game as the Rebels won 8-7.

UNI’s first match Friday started off slow as the Idaho State Bengals went up 2-0 by the end of the third, which included a steal of home. In the same span UNI had two, three-and-outs and could not capitalize on three walks in an inning.

The fourth inning, however, saw both Bunch and Lange score to it up 2-2. Three errors in the fifth saw UNI take the lead as both Tianna Drahn and Samantha Nicholson score to give UNI the 4-2 win.

The second game of the day against the Colorado State Rams did not go as well. A three-run leadoff inning permanently gave the Rams a lead. Padding the lead in the fourth with a run helped keep UNI at bay.

A leadoff homer by Jaci Spencer in the fifth gave UNI their first run, but were unable to capitalize on the preceding error. Bunch was able to lead the seventh off with a homer as well, but that was followed by three straight outs.

UNI travels to Louisiana this weekend for five games over three days in the Louisiana Tech Classic. They’ll play two on Friday, two on Saturday and conclude with one game on Sunday.