The ISU club baseball team was finally able to get their season games started – after having their past two weekends canceled because of poor weather conditions – and came out strong with a series win this weekend against last year’s conference champion, South Dakota, at Cap Timm Field in Ames.

Sunday afternoon saw a strong performance from freshman pitcher Jeff Peterson, who was able to pitch 5 innings, despite being hit with two line drives, one of which was turned into a great play and an out for South Dakota.

“Well, the first hit kind of ricocheted off me, to our third baseman [Andrew Reiff] who got the out,” Peterson said. “Ya know, it’s part of the game and it happens, I just hope it doesn’t happen again.”

The Cyclones showed very strong offensive dominance and aggressiveness on Sunday as well, with four stolen bases and a key 5th inning to help them take a 3-2 victory.

“Our aggressiveness in later innings [on Sunday] really made the difference for us,” club president Bryan Scholar said. “That and the fact that Peterson was able to step it up and stay strong.”

The Cyclones were able to start the series tough, with good offense and solid pitching to get an 8-6 win Saturday afternoon.

Junior Andrew Schmid threw five innings with two walks, one strike out, eight hits and five runs allowed.

“Andrew [Schmid] didn’t really play his best game that we’ve seen him play,” Scholar said. “But he kept us in the game, and our hitters were able to hit the ball and get on base.”

The second game of the doubleheader didn’t go as well for the Cyclones, with a lot of fly balls and a struggling offense making it hard for the team to get on the bases and causing a 2-1 loss.

“Our offense just really struggled in the second game,” Scholar said. “We jumped the gun and were out in front of the pitch too much and couldn’t find any gaps to hit the ball.”

Despite the struggling offense, junior Mike Fleck pitched exceptionally. Fleck stayed on the mound for all seven innings, throwing roughly 115 pitches and allowing only two runs.

“Mike [Fleck] played an awesome game, probably one of his best performances I have seen him play,” Scholar said. “He’s the kind of pitcher that is strong enough to stay in for all seven innings, and it’s that kind of pitching that keeps you in the game, like it did today.”

Iowa State won two out of three weekend games, but Scholar said the effort from the pitching staff put the team in position to win all three games that weekend.

“Our pitching won all three games for us this weekend, definitely,” said Scholar.

“All of our pitchers threw exceptionally well in all three of our games, and if we can keep throwing like that all year and continue getting some good hits on base, it will help us do really well this season.”

The Cyclones will be at home again this weekend, with two doubleheaders Saturday and Sunday against intrastate rival Iowa. Saturday’s doubleheader starts at 1 p.m., while Sunday’s games start at 11 a.m.