Cyclones head to Lincoln for second battle with Nebraska

Dan Wright

Two days after scoring more runs against Nebraska than any other Cyclone team, the ISU softball team will head to Lincoln to take on the Cornhuskers once again in the second part of a home-and-home series.

The ISU offense came alive against Nebraska on Tuesday, scoring more runs in their 13-4 victory than they had in their previous seven games combined. Before that game, a Cyclone team had never scored more than nine runs against Nebraska in the teams’ 77 meetings.

“We talked about applying pressure to the opponent and not playing from behind,” co-head coach Crystal Turner said. “We did that well as a team against Nebraska, but we started coming out of the funk against Oklahoma State.”

With the loss to the Cyclones on Tuesday, Nebraska fell to 1-8 in conference play and has lost five of its last six games. Nebraska will have to win all eight of their remaining conference games in order to keep their impressive streak of 10 consecutive winning conference seasons alive.

“Even though their record might not show it, they’re like every other Big 12 team,” Turner said.

“Everyone goes through a spell, but we knew going into this series that they aren’t going to just lay down and die for us.”

Iowa State seems to be headed in the opposite direction, having won three of their last four games. The run has coincided with the return of Ariel Coburn, who returned to the lineup after sitting out almost a month with a broken wrist. The senior homered twice in the victory on Tuesday night.

“It definitely helps that Ariel is back and ready to play, but I think everybody is doing better at making adjustments,” co-head coach Gary Hines said. “Softball is an up-and-down sport sometimes, and we’re trying to figure out how to keep playing well. I think lately we’ve been finding that better.”

After staff ace Alex Hupp started against the Cyclones on Tuesday night, Iowa State may face Molly Hill, who is next in the Huskers’ rotation and led the Big 12 conference in ERA last season. After undergoing knee surgery in January, Hill has struggled to find consistency and has posted a 7-10 record so far this season.

The 13-4 rout not only gave the Cyclones a much-needed conference victory, but also allowed them to play against all of Nebraska’s pitchers, something Hines sees as an advantage going into Thursday night’s game.

“Whichever girl we face, the nice thing about it is that we’ve seen them all now and we’ll know a little bit more of what to expect,” he said.