The ISU softball team ended its home schedule on a strong note Saturday, defeating Oklahoma 2-1 after losing 6-1 on Friday.

Friday’s game was close until the fourth inning, when Sooner freshman Jamie Fox belted a double into center field for two runs.

In the bottom of the inning, Cyclone junior Kim Rodgers was able to bring pinch runner Fallon Johnson home with her double. In the second game of Wednesday’s doubleheader against Missouri, Rodgers had the Cyclones’ only run with a solo home run, making her the only Cyclone to produce any offense in three games.

Rodgers said it wasn’t just the offense at fault.

“I think our defense has a lot to do with it. The score wouldn’t be that bad if we had made a couple plays,” Rodgers said. “It’s frustrating. We should be able to make those plays, and I think we need to be more determined to make the routine plays.”

The Sooners would go on to add four runs during the next three innings, largely due to Cyclone mistakes.

In the fifth, center fielder Ashley Core dropped a fly ball to allow two Sooners to score. With the score at 4-1, shortstop Cary Akins and left fielder Kelly Wardein both called for a Sooner pop fly, but neither caught it, allowing Jessica Leslie to reach first and two more Sooners to score.

Head coach Ruth Crowe said avoidable mistakes have been the story of the Cyclone’s season.

“Sometimes we play like a bad high school team,” she said. “They are routine plays — they’re not anything tricky — but it’s been the same thing all year long.”

Kimura’s long ball is the difference

On Saturday, both teams looked completely different from the previous game as the Sooners’ bats were quiet and the Cyclones’ were hot.

For the first time in three games, it wasn’t Rodgers providing the offensive spark for the Cyclones.

In the bottom of the third, Johnson was able to score on a hard hit by Akins that zipped by the diving shortstop and into center field. Akins was able to stretch it for a double, tying the score at one apiece.

Crowe was later ejected from the game after making a comment on her way back to the dugout about a call at home plate.

The Cyclones would break the tie in the fifth with a solo home run from Misty Kimura, making the score 2-1.

Her home run would prove to be the decisive run in the game as the Cyclones shut down the heavy-hitting Sooner offense the rest of the way.

“I think we were more aggressive at the plate; we weren’t letting as many strikes go by, and we just knew from the first game that we could hit [Kami Keiter, Sooner starting pitcher],” Kimura said. “After people figured her out, we got her number.”

Crowe was all smiles after the game, despite having been ejected from it.

“Alyssa [Ransom] was the story today. She really kept us in the game and went right at them,” she said. “We just made routine plays, and we got great pitching, clutch hits and Kimura’s home run. We were consistent on the pitching and defensive end, [and] when you do that, you have a chance to win.”

After splitting the series, the Cyclones improved to 12-29 overall and 2-12 in the conference while Oklahoma dropped to 37-17 and 11-7, respectively.

In what Crowe called a Most Valuable Player game by Ransom, the pitcher struck out eight Sooners and gave up only one run on five hits. Her record improved to 9-17.

“It feels really good — probably my best game all season,” Ransom said. “I was glad that we just kept up our defense.”

Despite giving up a home run in the first to conference home run leader Heather Scaglione, Ransom was confident in her pitching.

“It really set the tone for me when she got the home run,” she said. “I was like, ‘I’m really going to have to bear down and really have to go after these people.’ It made me step up my game a little bit more, so maybe it was a good thing that it happened.”

Next up for the Cyclones will be conference foe Kansas. Overall, the Jayhawks are 29-25-1 and fresh off of a win over Nebraska, second in the conference. “Kansas is going to be just like Oklahoma; they’re pretty much the same,” Crowe said. “If we go in there and play consistent, we can still continue to get some good things happening at the end of the year. It’s important because it carries over into the next year.”