The nation’s ninth best offense was just too much for the ISU softball team to handle on Saturday, when No. 7 Baylor (41-11, 11-2 Big 12) swept the Cyclones 6-1, 7-4 in a doubleheader at the Southwest Athletic Complex.

Sophomore Brette Reagan led the Lady Bears by crushing home runs in each game and finished the doubleheader going 4-for-5 with five runs scored and five runs driven in.

Senior Ashley Monceaux also hit a towering home run to center field in game two and finished the day with a run and three RBIs.

The Baylor offense generated a total of 23 hits in the series, which was turned into a Saturday doubleheader because of the threat of inclement weather bearing down on Sunday’s game time.

Just like most of their recent conference series, the Cyclones (22-35, 1-11) found themselves in a hole early and began to recover too late in the game.

In game two, the Cyclones entered the seventh inning down 7-1 and scored three runs after four batters, but couldn’t find the plate again before the last out was recorded.

“The last inning was great, we just need to find it the 13 innings before that,” said coach Stacy Gemeinhardt-Cesler. “We have to keep working to figure out why we can get up for the seventh, and adjust how we’re approaching our at bats.”

The Cyclones scored all four runs of game two in the final two innings, while being two-hit by Baylor freshman Kirsten Shortridge (14-3) for the first five. ISU freshman Courtney Wray had two hits for the Cyclones, and collected one more in the seventh for a total of three of the Cyclones’ five hits in the contest.

Despite only surrendering two hits in the first six innings, Shortridge gave up five walks and hit two batters, but did not allow a Cyclone runner to cross home plate until the sixth.

“We’re still stranding a lot of runners on base,” Gemeinhardt-Cesler said.

“We just need to do a better job of getting timely hits. If we can score four runs while leaving as many runners on as we did, I know we can do a better job.”

Iowa State collected a total of 10 hits in the two games, but left 14 runners on base, 10 in the second game alone.

Game one saw the Cyclones go down early as well, giving up two runs in the top of the first inning. Iowa State then plated its lone run of the game in the bottom of the inning, when senior Katie Reichling drove in Fallon Johnson for the first of her two RBIs of the afternoon.

After surrendering a run to Iowa State in the first inning, Baylor hurler Lisa Ferguson settled down for the rest of the game, retiring 18 of the final 20 Cyclone batters in the contest.

Ferguson earned the win for the Lady Bears, her 19th of the season and the 75th of her career, tying her for first on the all-time Baylor list.

Ferguson also earned her fourth save of the season in game two by getting the final Cyclone batters to ground out in the bottom of the seventh.

Cyclone pitcher Alyssa Ransom (10-15), despite being labeled with the loss, tied a season-high by striking out seven Baylor batters in the process.

“There are still little things that we need to work on,” Gemeinhardt-Cesler said.

“Baylor is a team you can’t afford to get down to,” she continued.” This is the Big 12; it’s going to be that way. They’re going to hit well, and they’re going to run, and you have to be on the top of your game to beat them.”