Iowa State made sure its struggles at the Georgia Tournament stayed in Georgia as it bounced back in Arkansas at the Razorback Invitational.

The Cyclones (10–11) started their climb to get back over .500 this weekend with a 3–2 record in the tournament.

Although Iowa State started the weekend off slowly, losing to Eastern Illinois, the Cyclones bounced back with three straight wins against Southern Mississippi, Drake and Arkansas. They ended up the weekend with a loss to No. 22 Louisiana-Lafayette.

“I think it could have gone better, but compared to the Georgia [Invitational] it was really good,” said junior pitcher Rachel Zabriskie.

After last weekend’s tournament, the team was able to improve its consistency. They feel like that was the key to their three-game winning streak.

“We just put a few things together,” Zabriskie said. “You need pitching, hitting and defense to win, and last weekend we had one or two and this weekend we had everything working together.”

Even with the three wins, the team seemed troubled about the two lost games over the weekend.

“In the Eastern Illinois game we just dug ourselves a hole and weren’t able to get out of it,” said coach Stacy Gemeinhardt-Cesler. “The last game on Sunday I thought we came out flat, and you can’t come out flat against somebody and win. Especially against that good of a team.”

The last game, against No. 22 Louisiana-Lafayette, was a rematch for the Cyclones. The two teams played Feb. 19, a game that Iowa State came back from a 4–0 deficit to tie the game, before falling in extra innings, 6–5.

“We knew Lafayette was a good team coming in, but we also knew we could beat them because we played [the] team so close before,” Zabriskie said. “We just didn’t have as much energy on Sunday as we did on Saturday night, which happens a lot.”

One reason for the lack of energy may have been the fast start by the Ragin’ Cajuns. Louisiana-Lafayette scored one run in the first and two runs in the second to open up an early 3–0 lead.

“They are just a really good team,” said sophomore outfielder Heidi Kidwell. “We knew it was going to be tough, so we tried to come out strong in the first inning. It was just tough, when they started hitting home runs to come back.”

By the seventh inning, the Cyclones were down 4–0. They were able to make another comeback against the Ragin’ Cajuns, but this time they were only able to score one run after loading the bases with no outs.

“We really weren’t even a threat until the very end, which is six innings too late,” Gemeinhardt-Cesler said.