The ISU softball team looks to avoid losing its seventh straight game when it heads to Lincoln for a rematch with the Nebraska Cornhuskers. The game is a makeup for a game originally scheduled for April 17 that was rained out.

With two losses to No. 5 Texas A&M this past weekend, Nebraska fell to 1-12 in conference play, ensuring it will snap its impressive streak of 10 consecutive seasons with a winning conference record. With a victory against the Cornhuskers (19-25, 1-12 Big 12), the Cyclones (26-25, 3-12) can guarantee that they’ll finish ahead of Nebraska in the conference standings and clinch a higher seed heading into the Big 12 tournament.

“We have some big games coming up,” co-head coach Gary Hines said. “A few wins here would give us something to build on.”

The matchup with Nebraska couldn’t come at a better time for the Cyclones, as they look to jumpstart their offense against a team they have scored 11 runs in one inning against. Iowa State exploded for 13 runs overall against Nebraska on April 16 on the strength of two home runs by senior Ariel Coburn and a grand slam by sophomore Alex Johnson. The 13 runs were the most Iowa State has scored against Nebraska in their 77 all-time meetings. Since then, the offense has failed to produce much else, scoring only nine runs over the last five games combined.

Despite the recent offensive shortcomings, Hines believes that his offense has shown signs of life in losing games to tough conference competition. The seven-game skid includes four losses to conference heavyweights Oklahoma and Missouri. After playing Oklahoma relatively close and losing to Texas Tech in 10 innings, Hines believes his team is showing signs of ending the slide.

“We haven’t quite come out of our skid,” Hines said. “Over the weekend we hit the ball hard but we hit it right at them it seemed like.”

The Cornhuskers are led by pitcher Molly Hill, who led the Big 12 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.

“Their pitchers have struggled, and been hurt,” Hines said. “It seems like we’ve got three or four hitters hitting the ball every game, and we’ll try to get more of them untracked [against Nebraska].”