The calendar shows April and VEISHEA have arrived at Iowa State.

Temperatures have climbed more than 70 degrees, but this weekend, when the ISU baseball club hosts in-state rival Northern Iowa, a chance of snow is possible.

The cold precipitation does not make for the most ideal playing conditions for Aaron Ruff and the Cyclones.

“It’s not the most fun you can have, since it makes the bat a little tougher in your hands to hold and the ball coming off hurts a little more,” Ruff said. “But we’ll be alright, we’ve done it before.”

Ruff has experience in the cold beyond his tenure with the Cyclones. The Bloomington, Minn., native said strange spring weather and the baseball season went hand-in-hand up north.

“We always started right after March so we’d always play with a little bit of snow, but if it wasn’t snowing we were playing,” Ruff said.

Scheduling changes are nothing new to the Cyclones. In late March, Saint Louis University canceled its travel plans to Ames, blaming the cold weather and the wind. But player-coach Jeff Peterson said the difference this weekend, besides the shorter travel, is that Saint Louis was not a conference foe like Northern Iowa is.

“They’ll be here, one way or another. The only way it would be canceled would be due to bad weather,” Peterson said. “Toward the end of the week we’ll see what the weather report looks like and go from there.”

Peterson said he might need to get in contact with the Panthers and decide if playing in sub-40-degree weather — a real possibility for Saturday — is feasible for both parties.

“We live in Iowa, so you gotta be ready for the weather,” Peterson said. “We’ll do our best to adapt to the situation. We just want to play ball no matter what.”

The Cyclones hosted a series in 2010 during VEISHEA. The good weather gave fans a chance to come out to the ballpark to enjoy an afternoon baseball game before attending VEISHEA activities in the evening. It was the most-attended series all season for the club.

The first game between Northern Iowa and Iowa State is tentatively scheduled for noon Saturday at Cap Timm Field, but is a fluid situation due to the forecast.

Updates on game cancellations can be found at iowastatedaily.net, should they arise.