The ISU club baseball team will begin its regular season on Saturday when St. Louis University comes to Ames. The Cyclones will host three games this weekend against St. Louis. 

St. Louis is not a part of the National Club Baseball Association which provides Iowa State the challenge of not knowing what they’re up against.

“They contacted us and wanted to get a game in,” said pitcher and player-coach Tyler Strub. “We really don’t know too much about them.”

Strub and Jeff Peterson are the scheduled starting pitchers for Saturday’s games and Ben Butler will get the call as the starter in the series finale Sunday. The three of them are in their third season pitching for the Cyclones.

“That consistency is there, we just need the bats to come around,” Strub said. 

Butler didn’t get a lot of offensive support during spring training, but has confidence that things will turn around against St. Louis.

“Our offense wasn’t really clicking and we had a few errors on defense too,” Butler said. “But we do have good hitters one through nine so I don’t think it should be a problem.”

Outfielder Brad Hallman was one player who was successful at the plate in spring training. Hallman said he adjusted his play in preparation for this first series.

“I changed my stance a little bit and changed my swing a little bit,” Hallman said. “Just getting my swing down was my major concern.”

The Cyclones don’t get to play 162 games like a major league baseball team, so every series carries significant weight.

“This weekend is pretty crucial,” Strub said. “It will be a good stepping stone.”

Hallman said it will be important to continue to play off of spring training and continue to “get used to baseball again.” 

The series begins with a double-header Saturday with start times of noon and 2:30 p.m. Sunday will mark the series finale with a start time of 11:00 a.m. All games are played at Cap Timm Field.