With two wins against the Coyotes already under their belt from a doubleheader earlier in the season, the Cyclones hoped it would be more of the same against the Coyotes the second time around.

The ISU softball team took on South Dakota for the second time this season in a doubleheader April 22 after facing the Coyotes at the Cyclone Invitational in early February.

Iowa State and South Dakota split the double header.

“It was a really good job,” said ISU coach Stacy Gemeinhardt-Cesler. “Rachel [Hartman] came through in the seventh and then [Lexi Slater] in the eighth. The pitchers threw well enough to win. I just thought the second game we could have done a lot better than what we did. We had too many hits for not enough runs.”

At the start of the first game, it didn’t look as though it would go in favor of the Cyclones. Going into the fourth inning, South Dakota was ahead 2-0. In the fourth inning, the Coyotes hit a two-run home run and improved their lead to 4-0.

The Cyclones were not going to give up quite yet, however.

Moving on to the bottom of the fifth inning, Hartman hit a double and batted in Slater. Next up to bat was first baseman Jorden Spendlove, who hit a line drive up the first baseline and drove in another run in sophomore left fielder Aly Cappaert to make the score 4-3.

At the bottom of the seventh, Hartman hit a home run over the center field wall to tie up the game 5-5 and force extra innings.

The eighth inning was three up and three down for South Dakota, and it was all Cyclones during the inning. Slater came up with the winning hit, which led infielder Maddie Reese into home for a 6-5 victory.

Slater thought the first game victory was good motivation for her team going into the second game.

“It felt good. I thought it was a good pumper-upper,” Slater said. “It’s always fun to win in the bottom of the [eighth].”

The first game April 22 was the third game this season that Iowa State has won in extra innings.

Gemeinhardt-Cesler said she was happy with her team after the first game, but she could not say as much for the second game. The second game went differently, as the Cyclones lost 12-3.

“I think we just didn’t come out attacking. We had like 11 hits and didn’t string the hits together which has been our problem lately not just in this game,” Slater said. “When you hit 11 hits and only score three runs it’s going to kill you every time.”

Cappaert believes her team needs to come out and execute their plays if they want to have a chance Wednesday against in-state rival Iowa.

“We need to execute. Playing like we know how and just come out attacking them,” Cappaert said. “I just know it’s going to be a really good game. The Cy-Hawk series is always a really good game.”

Iowa State will take on Iowa at 4 p.m. Wednesday at home in the Cy-Hawk Series.