With the Cyclones taking two out of three games from the UNI Panthers last weekend, they feel good with where the season is heading as they travel to Minnesota State-Mankato this weekend.

The team had some unusual circumstances, though, as snow fell from the sky during Saturday’s games, hindering the Cyclones in their lone 11-4 loss in the second game on Friday.

“It definitely gets hard to play the field out there when its cold, so I think that had a lot to do with it, but we’ll be alright, I mean, it was just the first game, so we’ll make adjustments and move on from there,” said assistant coach Jim Smaga.

The team could face similar conditions in heading to Minnesota State-Mankato this weekend, although Smaga isn’t worried.

“I checked the weather report and it looks like we could have some snowy conditions that weekend so it could be pretty interesting,” Smaga said.

Iowa State took each of the first games in the two double headers against Northern Iowa, but struggled in games two and four of the four game series. The fourth game does not count towards the team’s conference record.

Smaga mentioned it was good just to get back in the swing of things.

“I honestly thought we played real well, taking two of the three games from them, it was good just to get the bats going again and get the rust off our guys,” Smaga said.

Freshman second basemen Aaron Ruff had some trouble at second base, finding it challenging to shake off the freezing temperatures.

“I basically just lost focus. When it gets cold like that it gets really hard out there because the snow starts to collect on you and it makes it even colder and hard to move from side to side and make the throws I need to make.” Ruff said.

Ruff, who is from Minnesota, said he doesn’t think he will have any more trouble with the conditions.

“I’m from Minnesota, so I should be fine,” Ruff said. “This weekend was just basically first game jitters.”