The ISU softball team (20-21, 2-8 Big 12) split a pair of games with the Kansas Jayhawks (29-20, 2-14 Big 12) on Friday and Saturday at the Southwest Athletic Complex.

With eight games remaining in the regular season, all of which will come against teams currently ranked in the top 20, the Cyclones know they missed a chance to get an all-important Big 12 victory.

“I think we should have gotten both games,” said ISU pitcher Lauren Kennewell. “We wanted this sweep, we needed this sweep. Kansas is a good team and we can’t take that away from them, but I think we’re better than them.”

The feisty Cyclones registered a 4-3 victory Friday behind Rachel Zabriskie’s complete game on the mound.

In the second game, however, Zabriskie was not on top of her game and had to be pulled out in favor of Kennewell early in the second inning with Kansas out to a 3-0 lead.

With Kennewell on the mound, the Cyclones put together a 6-3 lead, only to fall victim to a Maggie Hull grand slam in the top of the fifth inning.

The grand slam was Hull’s third of the season.

“I thought that at times, we did some really good things, but after the grand slam was hit, we just didn’t push back, and it cost us the game,” ISU coach Stacy Gemeinhardt-Cesler said.

With the rest of the Cyclones’ schedule being made up of No. 16 Baylor, No. 15 Oklahoma, No. 14 Nebraska and No. 13 Missouri, the time to pick up conference wins is dwindling.

“Our time is running out, and we need to do a better job. There was definitely the opportunity for a sweep,” Gemeinhardt-Cesler said. “Any time you can sweep somebody in the Big 12, that’s what you have to do.”

Despite picking up their second conference victory of the year over the weekend, the Cyclone players feel they missed an opportunity to, if nothing else, put some space between themselves and last place in the Big 12.

“It’s kind of frustrating to lose like that; I think overall we’re a better team,” ISU right fielder Tori Torrescano said. “It just sucks losing like that. We definitely should have swept them.”

The Cyclones will be back on the field this Saturday and Sunday against the Baylor Bears. The Cyclones will celebrate senior day before Saturday’s game, which starts at 2 p.m. The second game of the series begins noon Sunday at the Southwest Athletic Complex.