The No. 17 ranked University of Wisconsin-Whitewater softball team wrapped up its annual spring break trip with a 7-5 record after splitting two games Thursday at the NTC Spring Games in Clermont, Fla.
 
The Warhawks (7-5 overall) topped Colby (Maine) by an 8-0 score in five innings to start the day before being edged 7-5 by Carleton (Minn.) in the second.
 
Against Colby (1-7), UW-Whitewater finished with a 14-3 advantage in hits and plated two runs in the first, two in the third and four in the fourth, and hung on for a run-rule victory.
 
Freshman Annie Morelli (Mundelein, Ill./Mundelein) allowed only two hits and one walk over two innings in her first career start. Junior Dani Biesiada (Lisle, Ill./Naperville North) improved to 2-0 on the season, surrendering only one hit and one walk in three shutout frames in relief of Morelli.
 
Sophomore left fielder Vera Pflugradt (Lake Zurich, Ill./Stevenson) tallied three hits and two runs scored, and senior centerfielder Caitlin Catino (Arlington Heights, Ill./Buffalo Grove) recorded three hits, including two triples, and added two runs scored and four runs batted in. Senior shortstop Emily Rux (Chicago, Ill./Mother McAuley) plated three runs, and junior first baseman Mattie Klingenmeyer (Mayville, Wis./Mayville) contributed two hits and one run scored.
 
In the second game, Carleton (14-3) took the lead for good with four runs in the top of the fifth inning.
 
Senior Julia Camardo (Arlington Heights, Ill./Buffalo Grove) took the loss, allowing three earned runs in 4 1/3 innings, and knocked a two-run double at the plate to help her cause. Rux totaled two hits and one RBI, and junior first baseman Nicole Neitzel (Verona, Wis./Verona Area) recorded two hits and scored one run.
 
After the Knights scored an unearned run in the top of the first, senior left fielder Kayla Seymour (New Lenox, Ill./Lincoln-Way West) led off the bottom half with her first career home run to tie the game at 1-1.
 
The Warhawks took a two-run lead in the bottom of the fourth on Camardo's double, but Carleton quickly responded with a big fifth inning, posting three doubles in the frame.
 
The two teams traded single-run innings in the next four at-bats. Rux knocked an RBI single with two outs in the fifth, and Biesiada drove home a run on a base hit with two outs in the sixth.
 
UW-Whitewater hosts Concordia Wisconsin Tuesday for its home-opening doubleheader at 3 p.m. at van Steenderen Complex.