The Longhorns used the big fly and an incredible pitching performance from freshman pitcher Blaire Luna to best the Cyclones 8-0 at the Southwest Athletic Complex in Ames on Saturday.

Luna confounded the Cyclones all day registering her 3rd no-hitter of the season against the Iowa State batters. 

“I was just trying to stay ahead in the count. Stay focused from pitch to pitch,” Luna said. “Playing chess I guess. That’s what we talk about a lot at Texas.”

The Cyclones were rarely able to put the ball in play against the freshman, as she struck out 12 of the 16 batters she faced.

“She does a good job of throwing it around the plate,” coach Stacy Gemeinhardt-Cesler said. “She doesn’t miss over the plate. She throws a lot of up, she throws a lot of down, but neither one of those pitches are very hittable pitches. She did a good job of getting us to bite on pitches that looked good, but they really weren’t.”

While the Cyclones had trouble making contact, the Longhorns capitalized on the strong wind blowing out to left field to score their runs. Iowa State has been vulnerable to the homerun all season long, but on Saturday, Texas really took advantage .

“The wind probably did help a little bit but it’s hard to say,” Texas left fielder Courtney Craig said. “I was just really seeing the ball well, I was really focused coming into the game.”

The home run hit by Craig in the fourth inning tied her with the school record for home runs in a season with 12.

The Longhorns had five homeruns, all over the left field fence. The homers accounted for all eight Texas runs in the game.

Gemeinhardt-Cesler refused to blame the wide for the big Texas hits however.

“The mistakes that we make are over the plate, they are slow, they are up, and good hitters are going to hit them out.”

“It makes me really mad that they come in here and beat us like that on senior day,” senior catcher Alex Johnson said. “But that is what’s so good about the Big 12, you get to see them again.”