The Iowa State softball was defeated twice on Friday — 6-1 and 11-3 — as part of a three-game series against No. 15 Texas A&M.

A familiar problem all season for the Cyclones (11-24, 0-8 Big 12) appeared yet again in these games as the ISU pitching staff struggled against the A&M offense.

Iowa State ranks last in the Big 12 in pitching with a team ERA of 7.31 while allowing a .357 batting average and 48 home runs — more than twice the amount allowed by any other team in the Big 12.

“I think that they [A&M] are a very good hitting team,” said coach Stacy Gemeinhardt-Cesler. “I just thought we have just been a little bit inconsistent.”

The Cyclones began the day with hopes of getting their first conference win of the season, but those hopes were quickly shut out as A&M pitcher Mel Dumezich dominated the contest from start to finish.

“She’s is a great pitcher,” Gemeinhardt-Cesler said. “She threw them into the world series last year. She has great movement. It doesn’t seem like it’s that hard but it’s sneaky quick.”

In the two games, Dumezich pitched a total of 11 innings allowing eight hits and one run. She was replaced in the fifth inning of the second game in favor of freshman Lauren Ainsley.

“I think the first game we had a case of atoms everyone was trying to lay off her pitches,” said junior ISU pitcher Tori Torrescano. “In the second game I think we started off slow and we didn’t act like we had seen the girl before.”

While the Aggies’ star pitcher played well, the Cyclone pitchers struggled.

Torrescano pitched the first game and gave up eight hits and five runs in her six innings of work. She was replaced in the seventh by Lauren Kennewell, who gave up one hit and one run in her inning of work.

“I don’t think I did I too bad,” Torrescano said. “There’s one pitch that I would ask for back but other than that the pitches they were hitting were good pitches.”

Taylor Smith began game two in the circle for the Cyclones. She pitched five innings while allowing eight hits of her own along with six runs.

Smith, too, was replaced by Kennewell, who in two innings, gave up four hits and five runs.

“I thought we were gonna come out better in the second game,” Kennewell said. “We had a hard time adjusting to her. But I feel like she’s going to be on the mound again tomorrow so we have to do a better job of doing that.”

One of those four hits was a grand slam off the bat of Ainsley. The grand slam marked not only the first home run of her career but also the first at-bat of her career.

“In all honesty that [Ainsley home run] was just too bad and unfortunate,” Gemeinhardt-Cesler said. “But we need to come right back tomorrow and do it again.”

The third and final game of the series is set to begin on Saturday at noon at the Southwest Athletic Complex in Ames.