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The University of Wisconsin-Whitewater softball team's season came to a close after a set of NCAA Regional title games at the van Steenderen Softball Complex in Whitewater Saturday. The Warhawks dropped the opener 13-4 and the second game 3-2 to end the season with a 28-12 mark. 

UW-Whitewater opened the scoring in game one with Grace Wickman (Wausaukee, Wis./Peshtigo) legging out an infield single and then flying around the bases on Taylor Koehler's (Wauconda, Ill./Wauconda) double to left center for a 1-0 lead. 

Coe College came back with a five-spot in the third and Warhawk miscues proved costly the rest of the way. 

Wickman was 3-4 in the game to lead UWW at the plate while Kendall Pliner (Mayville, Wis./Mayville) came in to hit a pinch hit, two-run bomb late in the game. 

Maddy Anderson (Waukesha, Wis./North) suffered the loss on the mound allowing a single earned run in 2.2 innings of work. 

With the regional title on the line in the second championship game, Coe struck first. The Kohawks plated two runs on two hits in the bottom of the second. They added another run in the bottom of the third for a 3-0 lead. 

The Warhawks didn't quit -- gaining some momentum on a no-doubter blast off Meghan Dunning's (Plainfield, Ill./South) bat in the top of the fourth. The UWW faithful were on their feet and the Warhawks were out of the dugout the moment the ball hit the bat to get UW-Whitewater on the board. 

UWW capitalized on a Kohawk miscue in the sixth. Wickman reached on that error. Pliner came up with another clutch pinch hit at bat doubling down the right field line to score Wickman and pull the Warhawks within one, 3-2. 

Krista Sbarra (West Chicago, Ill./St. Charles East) drew a seventh inning walk but UWW was unable to bring in the tying run. 

UW-Whitewater tallied four hits in the game - all by different Warhawks. Rhiann Dick (Palatine, Ill./Palatine) suffered the loss in the circle to cap the year with a 5-2 record. 

The 2023 UWW squad claimed the program's 15th Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference title before finishing third in the league tournament. The Warhawks received an at-large bid making their way back to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2019.