(THIS WOULD NEED TO BE UPDATED BEFORE PUBLISHING)

This past season, the Iowa State softball team has already played better than they have in previous seasons with 23 wins, which matches their overall win total from the 2017 and 2018 season.

One of the things that has made the team better is their team chemistry.

“In my four years here this has been the best team chemistry that we’ve had,” senior pitcher Savannah Sanders said. “We understand that no matter what happens off the field we have to have each other’s back and that really plays over on to how we play on the field; it’s been our Achilles heel in the past.”

The Cyclones have notable wins this season over 15th ranked Texas Tech, against Colorado State, who has a good argument to be ranked, and against the Iowa Hawkeyes.

Iowa State is led by head coach Jamie Pinkerton, who is in his second season as head coach at Iowa State.

The Cyclones are a very experienced group as they have five senior fielders who have started 30 or more games and two senior pitchers who have made multiple starts for the Cyclones.

Emma Hylen is the team’s best pitcher with a record of 11-5. Junior Sami Williams leads the Cyclones in all but one offensive category and is in the top 10 among Big 12 players in nine offensive categories.

A few freshmen that have begun to make an impact for the Cyclones are Shannon Mortimer, Mikayla Ramos and Kasey Simpson.

“In some key positions we’re very young, but we also we have a lot of seniors,” Pinkerton said. “They’ve [the seniors] have grown and become confident women.”

Before becoming the head coach at Iowa State, Pinkerton served as an assistant coach from 2010-2013 and then went on to start the Montana University softball program from scratch. Pinkerton became the head coach at Iowa State in 2017.

Iowa State’s softball team is a member of the Big 12 Conference, along with the Baylor Lady Bears, Kansas Jayhawks, Oklahoma Sooners, Oklahoma State Cowgirls, Texas Longhorns and Texas Tech Lady Raiders.

In Iowa State’s history, the Cyclones have only made the NCAA tournament once back in 1988. Iowa State made the AIAW Women’s College World Series in 1971 and 1973. The Cyclones have won two conference tournaments, in 1976 and 1978.

Since they joined the Big 12 in 1996, Iowa State had yet to have a winning season and has never finished in the top half of the conference. Iowa State has only had one season that has not resulted in a losing record since 1995, which was the 2008 season where the Cyclones finished with a 29-29 record.

This past season, the team failed to finish in the top half of the Big 12, but they finished the regular season and Big 12 Championship 32-23 (7-11 in Big 12) and earned an invite to the National Invitational Softball Championship for the team’s first post season tournament since joining the conference.

The softball team plays their home games at Cyclone Sports Complex.