She knew it was gone the second it left the bat.

Sydni Jones’ walk-off grand slam home run in the bottom of the seventh inning soared over fence in straight away center field and split the flag poles to give Iowa State (24-19, 2-5 Big 12) a 9-5 victory over Nebraska (24-18, 4-4).

Jones had gone over that scenario in her head more times than she could remember and the curveball on the outside corner of the plate from Nebraska pitcher Ashley Hagemann helped turn that vision into a reality.

“I was just in the box thinking ‘This is what I’ve worked for,” Jones said. “It’s my senior year. I’ve worked hard for this and we’re going to see what happens.”

The home run came in Jones’ fourth at bat and it was her only hit of the game.

She led off with a walk before flying out on a well-hit ball to right field and then striking out in her third at bat. Despite not having any hits up to that point, she felt confident going into the high-pressure at bat.

“I felt comfortable no matter what,” Jones said. “I wasn’t frustrated too bad because I was seeing the ball, I just wasn’t connecting like I wanted to. I’d like to think I’m an inside hitter but that was my third home run on an outside pitch so maybe I’m an outside hitter.”

The Cyclones and Cornhuskers were always within two runs of each other — until Jones’ home run — and had to battle through rainy conditions for much of the game.

At first, the rain appeared to help Iowa State as it was able to take advantage of two Cornhusker errors and get runners on base. Jones caught the final out in the Nebraska half of the fourth when the rain started to pick up and a rain delay was considered due to Nebraska’s pitcher having trouble gripping the ball.

The tide turned on Iowa State in the Nebraska half of the fifth inning as starting pitcher Rachel Zabriskie gave up back-to-back home runs, coming off the bats of the Cornhusker’s Julie Brechtel and Brooke Thomason, evening the score at 5-5.

Iowa State also got a solid performance from Erica Miller, who went 3-4 at the plate with two RBIs.

Miller takes a certain approach on the advice of her mother when she’s up at the plate.

“My mom told me to just see the ball, hit the ball,” Miller said. “That’s all you have to do. You could go up there and try to guess what she is throwing; At the end I tried to do that, but it wasn’t successful. You just go up there and you see the ball coming at you, it looks like a big beach ball, and just try to hit and usually you’ll be successful.”

In the seventh inning, ISU senior outfielder Kelsey Kidwell reached first base on a ground ball and then stole second base. That was then followed by a walk issued to senior catcher Alex Johnson, which brought senior third baseman Courtney Wray to the plate before Jones’ final at bat.

“They walked Alex and Court followed it up with a great at bat,” said ISU coach Stacy Gemeinhart-Cesler. “The grand slam was just icing on the cake.”

Lauren Kennewell picked up the win for Iowa State as she relieved Zabriskie and was able to keep the Cornhuskers off the scoreboard in her two innings on the mound.

“The whole game was just mentally exhausting, but it came out for the best in the end,” Miller said. “That was really good; That last play that Syd got was awesome and everyone was so excited. Just that last inning, everyone could tell that it was going to build up to it. As a team we do a good job of picking ourselves up and getting ourselves excited.”

After starting the Big 12 season 0-3, Nebraska was going into the matchup on a roll with four straight conference wins and its potent offense provided a tough matchup for the Cyclones.

Thursday, the top half of the Cornhuskers’ lineup combined to go 9-20 (.450).

The Cyclones are now 8-7 in games decided by one run.