The North Alabama baseball team opened play at Mike Lane Field with a three-game series versus Bellarime Feb. 10-11.The Lions won the opening game Feb. 10 8-1, but split the final two games the next day with an 11-0 win and 12-10 loss to close out the series.

Lions head coach Mike Keehn said he was pleased overall with the way his team performed, but also recognizes some places where the Lions still need improvement going forward.

“After the first two games I think we’re feeling pretty good about the way we’re playing, especially defensively,” he said. “That was something we wanted to address and we really came out for game three with a lot of energy and thought we were going to be able to put them away.

“You have to give them a lot of credit, they really came back but we have to really handle pressure better in certain situations or you end up letting games slip away.”

The Lions were also effective on offense throughout the entire series, including junior catcher Logan Carter, who finished the series leading the team with eight hits including four doubles and a homerun.

Senior pitcher Devan Traglia also had an efficient day on the mound for UNA in game two where he threw seven shutout innings giving up only four hits and posting nine strikeouts.

“Honestly at first I didn’t really have the groove and my slider wasn’t going too well,” he said. “But about the fourth inning I really I started finding my slider, and my arm started to loosen up a lot. After that, I was good to go once I found my groove.”

The series win for UNA puts them at 3-3 on the season as they get ready for another home game against Lemoyne-Owen Feb. 15.