A 26-mile-per-hour wind — and gusting even higher — coupled with the temperature around 35 degrees, made for pretty miserable conditions for the Cyclones’ 6-1 victory over North Dakota State at the Southwest Athletic Complex in front of a sparse crowd.

Despite the conditions, the Cyclones felt they were able to play a good game. Iowa State came back after losing to Texas Tech 4-3 on Sunday.

“We did a better job coming into today than we did on Sunday [against Texas Tech],” said head coach Stacy Gemeinhardt-Cesler. “Defense looked better, I think our at-bats looked better, [pitcher Rachel Zabriskie] threw better, everything was so much better today than it was on Sunday.”

Zabriskie gave up six hits and struck out eight batters, giving up just one run, unearned.

“She did a great job today,” said freshman outfielder Heidi Kidwell. “Considering the weather and the cold and everything, she has been doing awesome the whole time.”

Despite her success, the wind did affect her pitches a little bit, leading to two wild pitches.

“I have to give a lot of credit to AJ [catcher Alex Johnson] because when you’re pitching into the wind, the ball moves like crazy and it moves wherever it wants to move, especially with me,” Zabriskie said. “So she did a great job of just following it, and they were swinging at it.”

The wind seemed to be affecting Zabriskie and Johnson early in the game, however, as Bison shortstop Nicole Rivera struck out, but was able to advance to first and eventually all the way home without a single hit in the inning, giving North Dakota State the early 1-0 lead.

From there it was all Iowa State as Kidwell put on a rare display of power in the third inning, slap-hitting a two-run home run over the center field fence to put the Cyclones on top. Iowa State followed that up with a big, four-run fourth inning, featuring three straight doubles by senior Jacquelyn Beatty, freshman Bianca Lopez, and junior Kelsey Kidwell.

The Cyclones were aided in the game by a couple of hits that were misplayed by NDSU defenders because of the wind. Iowa State, however, was able to play the wind well defensively throughout the game.

“During warm ups, we practiced with [coach] hitting it high because we knew the wind would take it, and then coach talked to us afterwards about making sure our feet were always moving staying under it so we wouldn’t have to reach for it,” Kidwell said.

Game two cancelled

The second game of Tuesday’s doubleheader was cancelled due to the poor weather conditions.

A strong wind showed potential to create unsafe playing conditions.

“I always like to play, but if you remember back to that play in between Sydni [Jones] and Amanda [Bradberry], that’s a direct result, I think, of the weather,” Gemeinhardt-Cesler said.

The play to which she is referring occurred in the fourth inning when Bison designated player Taylor Mortensen hit a high pop-up that looked to be going well foul. The wind caught the ball and pulled it back fair where Jones and Bradberry collided, leaving Jones on the dirt for a couple minutes.

Gemeinhardt-Cesler said that considering how banged up the team is right now, it is probably a good thing the team didn’t play a second game in those conditions.

Home run number one

Kidwell’s homer was the first of her Cyclone career. In fact, it was only the second one she had hit since she began playing in high school.

The home run came in the third inning with a runner on second and Iowa State down by one run.

“I didn’t think it was going to go over,” she said. “I think the wind helped a little bit, which was nice, but it was kind of surprising. I was getting ready to round first and sprint to second and it just went over.”