This past weekend proved to be a very significant one for the Cyclones.

Not only were there a few shining areas in their play, but for one Cyclone player, yet another milestone was reached in her career.

Junior catcher Alex Johnson climbed to second place on Iowa State’s all-time runs batted in list.

She currently sits at 90 RBI’s for her career. She tied for second during Saturday’s game with a two-run home run and eventually broke the tie during Sunday’s game with another two-run home run. The two home runs this weekend also tied her for fourth on the all-time home run list.

Despite the lists she finds herself on, Johnson said she would rather focus on the game more than the numbers.

“I know that [numbers] are important to the game and statistics show a lot, but really I try to look past that,” Johnson said. “As long as we score to win, that’s what’s really important because there’s so much more to [softball] than just setting records.”

For coach Stacy Gemeinhardt-Cesler, the success Johnson has had at the plate came as no surprise.

“Obviously to have that many RBI’s, and she’s been having success for the three years she’s been here, to do that before her senior year, I think that’s great,” Gemeinhardt-Cesler said.

“I think she’s a great player, she’s definitely a key to our offense and I think that when you have a good hitter, they’re going to be breaking records.”

Gemeinhardt-Cesler also said that Johnson’s will to succeed plays a pivotal role in the team’s morale and potential success.

“She‘s a competitor,” Gemeinhardt-Cesler said. “She likes to compete and I think that she competes in every single thing that she does. For her to go up to the plate and compete every time then as long as she’s up there we definitely have a chance. Off the field, she’s the same way, she likes to compete and she likes to win in everything she does.”

Another aspect of the game that stood out this weekend was pitching. It has been no mystery the Cyclones have hit a few speed bumps due to injuries to their pitching staff. Despite Sunday’s loss, Johnson still credits sophomore pitcher Rachel Zabriskie, who pitched both games this weekend, for helping lead the team through this crucial period in the season.

“She’s a huge part of this team,” Johnson said. “Her mentality is great, everybody’s behind her, win or lose out of this series, we still got her back. We know how important she is, and she knows how important she is, and everybody supporting her makes her do as well as she’s doing in this situation, even though it’s tough.”

Defensively, going into the series the Cyclones were last in the Big 12 in fielding percentage. The team was able to get through the series only committing one error, however.

“We know what we have to do in order to be successful,” Johnson said. “Not making the errors is already set in stone. That was one of our goals [Saturday], no errors and we didn’t have any errors. We’re not afraid of messing up, so just having Rachel’s back and knowing that playing good defense is important, that’s what we try to do.”