IOWA CITY — The ISU softball team’s offense was anemic again, gathering only two hits on Tuesday in a 4-0 loss to Iowa.

The loss drops Iowa State to 13-26 on the year and gives Iowa (38-9) the first-ever Hy-Vee Cy-Hawk Series trophy for the year.

“We didn’t play well enough to win, obviously,” said ISU coach Ruth Crowe. “I thought Lisa Birocci pitched a really good game — we only had two hits. We didn’t have good hitting, they had good defense and pitching; they played better today.”

Iowa’s Birocci improved her record to 22-7 and recorded five strikeouts and only one walk in seven innings. Alyssa Ransom took the loss, giving up four runs — two earned — and eight hits while striking out one. Her record dropped to 7-15 on the year.

“We could have done better,” Ransom said. “They weren’t as sharp as they have been in the past and we just didn’t bring all of our game today.”

The Hawkeyes, ranked No. 20 by ESPN/USA Today, started the game quickly in the first inning by getting three hits before the second out was made. Ransom was able to battle her way out of the inning, though, and no Hawkeyes crossed the plate.

The Cyclones showed off their bats for the only time in the game in the second inning with two quick singles by designated hitter Katie Reichling and Ashley Killeen, but neither came home.

Iowa scored the game’s first runs in the third when Stacy May sent her eighth home run of the season over the left field wall. One batter later, right fielder Kylie Murray made her way to second and came home on Emily Nichols’ double, making the score 2-0.

Ransom got into a jam again in the fifth by giving up another double, this time to left fielder Natalie Johnson. Johnson advanced to third base on a fly out to right field by May. But second baseman Summer Downs sent a line drive screaming to Diana Reuter at third base, who made the catch and doubled up Johnson.

“[Reuter] did a good job on that,” Ransom said. “I’m just glad that their base runner was off the bag and we were able to get two.”

Iowa added two more runs in the sixth by way of errors from Cyclone shortstop Cary Akins and first baseman Jessica Quade. Birocci cracked a grounder towards Akins, who snagged it and threw it too high for Quade to pull down, allowing designated hitter Sami Baugh to come home from second. Quade committed a fielding error on first baseman Brandi Sargent’s liner into right, allowing Birocci to cross the plate for Iowa’s fourth run.

“Really we had two outs,” Ransom said. “Sami Baugh did a really good job of hitting an inside pitch, and we should have gotten the next out, so that’s three outs. We should have gotten that last out and been down 2-0.”

The Cyclones were unable to take advantage of Reichling’s walk in the seventh, as Killeen made it to first on a fielder’s choice and was then forced out at second in a double play by Reuter to end the game.