The ISU softball team is expecting to host Western Illinois on Tuesday in a twin-billing. Coach Stacy Gemeinhardt-Cesler, on the other hand, is expecting twins of a different kind – twin baby boys.

Doctors ordered Gemeinhardt-Cesler, who is about 5 to 6 months pregnant, to bed rest on March 11, just before the team’s spring break trip. With just over a month remaining in the season, her return to the team for the remainder of this year’s season seems unlikely but will be decided week-to-week, according to assistant coach Gary Hines. He, along with assistant coach Crystal Turner, will co-coach the Cyclones in Gemeinhardt-Cesler’s absence.

Although the news is good for Gemeinhardt-Cesler and her husband, Jeff, the bed rest couldn’t have come at a worse time for a Cyclone team that loses its leader in the midst of one of its best starts ever (20-11, 1-1 Big 12).

“Of course she is excited to find out it’s twins and everything. They are completely overjoyed, but at the same time we know it is hard for her because she is such a competitive person,” said former Cyclone Alyssa Ransom, who is serving as an interim assistant coach during the pregnancy. “To not be able to be here with the team and everything, and to have to lay in bed all day and eat bon bons isn’t ideal for her, but she has her priorities and we understand.”

The loss of the team’s head coach undoubtedly leaves a void, and it’s the task of Hines and Turner, both of whom have no previous head coaching experience, to help guide the Cyclones through the rough transitional period. And it has been rough.

In the two weeks following Gemeinhardt-Cesler being mandated to bed, the Cyclones saw the loss column of their shiny 18-4 record balloon after a tough 2-7 spring break. The Cyclones played four games against ranked teams, but attributed some of the poor play to adjusting to the absence of their coach.

“I think some of our inconsistency over the last week was just due to not being really quite sure,” Hines said. “Before it was ‘we are ready to go; we know what we are doing,’ but there is just always a question when the leader leaves. It’s like at work, when the boss is gone there’s questions, so I think we are working our way through that.”

The Cyclones knew since December that this could be an issue, and, according to Hines, they practiced some situations earlier in the season in case their coach might have to leave. But all the practice in the world doesn’t make up for the simple fact that missing Gemeinhardt-Cesler is a logistics problem that the team is trying to overcome.

“When you have three coaches you have more eyes on things,” Hines said. “When you start cutting into numbers of coaches, you have to see more, and you might miss little details. You hope you don’t, but the important thing is to see where they are and figure them out.”

That’s where Ransom’s promotion to interim assistant coach could help the team. Ransom pitched for four years with the team, was an intern in the fall, and will be a graduate assistant next year.

“From the playing standpoint, she just finished playing so she can relate with them really well,” Hines said. “It helps to have another person who was a pitcher – it helps the pitchers from that point of view. Again, it gives us one more set of eyes to see things in practice and in games that we need to be aware of.”

The spring break trip wasn’t all bad news, and the Cyclones showed signs that Gemeinhardt-Cesler’s absence wouldn’t completely hamper the team. In Iowa State’s last game and second Big 12 matchup, they knocked off then-No. 15 Baylor 2-1 to end the trip on a positive note.

“It has just been an adjustment. Even looking how we progressed over spring break – the last few games against Baylor – I definitely think we are getting used to that transition,” said senior pitcher Amie Ford. “And I think that was a good time for it. We had a lot of games to work on the transition.”

Although losses aren’t something the Cyclones want to accumulate, Ford is right about one thing – it was a good time to go through the transition, before the rest of a tough Big 12 season comes their way. The Cyclones face Western Illinois (3-14) in their home opener Tuesday and UNI (10-12) on Wednesday before launching back into conference play with Texas at home next weekend.

“I think, at first, it was natural to not really be sure about who is doing what or how is this going to work, who is going to hit us fly balls, or coach third base,” Ransom said. “I think now they are past the whole ifs and what-ifs stage, and I think they are starting to figure out how they need to handle it.”