The UIS softball team officially began play on Feb. 12 and compiled a 3-6 record during its opening nine-game road stretch while traveling to Bentonville, Arkansas and Kissimee, Florida.

On their opening day on Feb. 12 at the UAM Quad-State Classic, the Prairie Stars endured back-to-back one-run losses.

The first game UIS played was against the University of Central Missouri. Getting on base didn’t seem to be the problem, as in the first inning the Prairie Stars managed three baserunners. Instead it came down to timely hitting and bringing runners home.

Jaycee Craver made her college debut as a pitcher, retiring the first four batters that came to plate.

The first score of the game came when Alexa McClaughry hit a single to bring Rachel Goff home in the top of the third. Central Missouri didn’t respond to the run until the bottom of the seventh, as they tied the game 1-1.

UIS regained the lead in the top of the eighth after Madi Torry scored due to a sacrifice bunt by Ashli King. However, the Stars’ success did not last long due to a throwing error allowing Central Missouri to take a late 3-2 lead.

The Prairie Stars endured another close loss on Feb. 12, falling to Missouri Southern State University (MSSU) 5-4. Similar to the first game, UIS started strong offensively with four baserunners in the first two innings.

Alexandria Smith was the starting pitcher, and she had a hot start as well. Smith was perfect until the second inning, in which she surrendered two runs as UIS committed two errors.

UIS committed four errors in total in game two, which contributed to most of the runs by Missouri Southern. Despite each teams having eight hits, MSSU was able to capitalize one more time than UIS was.

The next day brought success to the Prairie Stars, as they grabbed a commanding 7-3 victory over Southwest Baptist University on Feb. 13.

Despite scoring first, Southwest Baptist was unable to emulate that early success on the defensive end, committing errors and allowing the Prairie Stars to score.

Molly Manietta’s two-run double to left field was one of the highlights of the game as it helped the Stars to extend their lead in the fourth.

Southwest Baptist answered back with two solo homeruns in the bottom of the fifth, cutting the Stars’ lead to just two runs at 5-3.

But Haley Inman quickly silenced Southwest Baptist’s rally as UIS scored the final two runs during the latter half of the inning on a two-run single.

Unfortunately for UIS, the second game on Feb. 13 did not include the same amount of success, as they lost to Upper Iowa University by a score of 3-1. The final two scheduled games of the tournament, against Northwest Missouri State University and the University of Nebraska at Kearney, were cancelled due to poor weather.

On Feb. 19, UIS traveled to Kissimee, Florida where they faced off against four teams in five games. UIS started the weekend playing the defending National Champions, the University of North Georgia, which resulted in an 8-0 defeat for the Prairie Stars. In their second game they played Queens College, beating them 4-1.

The next two were against Rollins College and Dominican College, in which the games had the same score but different outcomes.

Against Rollins, UIS lost a close game by a score of 4-3, but prevailed 4-3 the next day against Dominican.

The Prairie Stars capped off their weekend in Florida by playing North Georgia once more, which resulted in another 8-0 loss.

The Prairie Stars resume play on Feb. 26 at the Lewis Flyers Dome Invitational against Wayne State University.