Tyler Strub and the ISU club baseball team felt ready to compete in their home opener against Saint Louis University last weekend. Unfortunately, Saint Louis’ team called Strub with other ideas.

“They said they didn’t want to play in 30-degree weather,” Strub said. “We were out here and I decided to have a scrimmage with the guys.”

The Cyclones (2-2) spent a few hours during a cold-but-playable overcast afternoon Saturday without an opponent. They did have an opportunity to play against each other.

Four new players have joined the team since spring training last month, so the unexpected scheduling snafu gave those players a chance to acclimate themselves with the others.

“The guys were obviously disappointed [not to play],” Strub said. “We always like to play games, obviously the more we can get in the better because we only play on the weekends, but we had a lot of fun on Saturday and utilized a lot more pitchers.”

Justin Sullivan joined the club last year as a freshman. The outfielder played high school baseball in Minnesota and came to Iowa State for the education but also to continue playing.

He said he didn’t attend spring training in Florida and wanted to get back into playing live baseball again against Saint Louis. Alas, the intra-squad scrimmage would have to suffice.

“Personally I didn’t like the cancellation, but it was understandable because of the weather,” Sullivan said. “It was good to get back on the field. It was a good experience.”

Sullivan and the Cyclones will get another opportunity to play a real baseball game this weekend, as Iowa State hosts Minnesota State. The schedule originally called for the team to trek up to Minnesota, but due to fields not being ready for game action, Mankato will instead travel south.

It’s another scheduling change — and the season is barely underway. Strub acknowledged the strange situation his club is in, but said everything will be ready for games.

“Our field is going to be ready and it’ll be nice to have another home game, since we don’t get too many in,” Strub said.

Ben Butler, Jeff Peterson and Jon Chapman will start on the mound for the Cyclones. The first game starts at 1 p.m. Saturday at Cap Timm Field in Ames.