There is no admission fee to ISU Baseball Club games, but club president Bryan Scholar doesn’t want any free passes issued to his players this weekend. The Cyclones (1-1) will try to rebound this weekend in a home series with the Northern Iowa Panthers, from last weekend’s split with the Iowa Hawkeyes in which their pitching staff surrendered 19 walks in two games.

“The main thing this weekend is I want to see our pitching improve,” Scholar said. “I want to see a lot less walks. We’ve got to get ahead of hitters. Pitching from behind – that killed us in the first game (a 12-7 loss) and would have in the second game if we didn’t score 11 runs.”

Even with the walks, the Cyclones were able to salvage a two-game split with the Hawkeyes after opening the first game of the season with almost no offense. After being held scoreless for the first four innings of Sunday’s first game, Iowa State broke out with six runs in the fifth inning. They later went on to add eleven more in the second game of a 11-6 victory. Having their first full week of practice outdoors, in the cages and on the field taking batting practice, Scholar said his team should be able to carry the offensive momentum over from last weekend.

“That was huge,” Scholar said. “We really didn’t know what we had offensively, especially since we hadn’t seen a lot of pitching over the off-season. Offensively, I feel really confident going into this weekend.”

Iowa State will open the series by sending right hander Blake Wilken to the mound. Wilken will try to improve on his first start of the season that saw him get roughed up by the Hawkeyes who scored six runs on the senior. Wilken said he hopes the combination of his first start and a solid bullpen this week will have him fully prepared when the Panthers arrive at Cap Timm Field. The key for Wilken and the rest of his staff?

“Walks,” Wilken said. “If you’re a player on the field, you get bored when there are walks, so its really important to minimize them as much as possible.”

Iowa State’s first three games of the four-game series will count toward its standing in the Central Plains North Conference.

Like Scholar, Wilken said his team’s offense should be able to carry them through the weekend. He said his goal is to keep them in the game as much as possible, as they square off against a Northern Iowa opponent that has yet to hit the field this season.

“Obviously I just want to give us a chance to win,” Wilken said. “The guys will do their thing hitting, my job is to keep them in it.”