IOWA CITY — What a difference a week makes.

The ISU softball team played the Fall Hawkeye Classic like a whole different team than the one that swept the National Invitational Tour a week ago.

Iowa State lost its first two games to North Dakota State (6-1) and Drake (8-0) on Saturday. The Cyclones beat Drake the second time around 3-2, and lost the final game to Iowa 6-0 on Sunday.

“We need to get better in all parts of our game,” head coach Ruth Crowe said.

Last fall, the Cyclones went undefeated at this tournament, and losing three out of four games this weekend has left a bitter taste in the Cyclones’ mouths.

“Bad pitching, bad defense,” Crowe said. “Any time you have that combination, you’re going to give up a lot of runs.”

They certainly did, as the Cyclones were outscored 22-4 during the four-game tournament.

Crowe said she was very disappointed in sophomore pitcher Alyssa Ransom’s performance. Ransom was responsible for giving up 14 of those 22 runs, and fellow sophomore Katie Reichling gave up the other eight.

Bad defense was also to blame for the high number of runs.

“That’s pathetic,” Crowe said. “[Ransom’s] much better than that.”

Ransom corroborated that assessment.

“Everyone needs to step up, because we’re just hanging down at this lower level,” she said.

There was one high point for the Cyclones in the tournament, when sophomore first baseman Jessica Quade belted a three-run home run to win the game against Drake.

To add injury to insult, literally, the team learned that sophomore catcher Ashley Killeen would be out for the remainder of the fall season with a broken nose. Killeen fouled off a pitch that struck her in the face, breaking her nose in three places and requiring 15 stitches.

“It’s hard to sit and watch,” Killeen said. “I’ve never missed a game due to injury. But at least it happened during the fall and not the spring.”

Her injury opened the door for freshman Dena De Stigter to take up the catching position.

“[I’m] nervous,” De Stigter said. “It puts me in a weird place. It’s horrible that it had to happen that way, but it does give me a chance to play and show the coach what I can do.”

After playing a total of nine games this fall season, Crowe and several players said they know exactly what they need to do.

Crowe said players just need to focus. The fall season is a practice season to see what the team will look like when the spring season rolls around. “We’re not preparing for the upcoming tournaments so much as we’re preparing for the spring,” Crowe says.

Senior outfielder Misty Kimura says her new swing still needs some work. She is also getting used to a different position in the batting order from the third or fourth position she had last season.

“I’m hitting leadoff now,” she said. “You have to be more determined, and [leadoff] takes a little more focus because you’re the one who has to tell everyone else what the [opposing] pitcher is throwing.”

Ransom has been struggling with the location of her pitches. Although most of the Cyclones played in a summer league, Ransom spent all summer honing her pitching skills.