In the Big 12 Conference, gaining some wins in the later part of the softball season can be a huge momentum boost heading into the conference tournament.

For the Iowa State softball team, getting two wins was on their minds when they played Texas Tech last weekend before the conference tournament. But it just wasn’t the case for head coach Ruth Crowe and rest of her team.

Iowa State, which is coming off a split with the Red Raiders, will be the No. 7 seed in the conference tournament, which starts at 5 p.m. Thursday at the Don Porter ASA Hall of Fame Stadium in Oklahoma City, Okla.

The Cyclones (19-27 overall) will play No. 10 seed Baylor in the first round. If the Cyclones win, they will play No. 2 seed Oklahoma State later tonight at 7:30 p.m. Texas, which won their second straight regular season conference title, will enter the tournament as the No. 1 seed.

Crowe said the Cyclones are in good position heading into the tournament, but would have liked a sweep of the Red Raiders.

“Where we are right now, a split is OK,” Crowe said after Sunday’s loss. “I just really felt that we needed to win two going into the Big 12 tournament.”

Crowe said it really doesn’t matter what team records are when postseason tournament play begins.

“Anybody can beat anybody at the Big 12. Obviously, the top half of the conference has separated themselves from the bottom half,” Crowe said. “In light of that, we still beat Oklahoma who is up there. We played really well against those good teams. It’s just that we have to put things together.”

The Cyclones defeated the Bears with a home weekend sweep on April 11 and 12. That weekend, senior catcher Katie Ruby provided some big hits for Iowa State.

In the first game of the series, Ruby hit a three-run homer over the fence to tie the game at 7-7. Iowa State would end up winning the game in eight innings 8-7.

On the very next day, she hit a three-run shot over the left field fence to tie the game at four. In the bottom of the seventh inning, with the Cyclones down 6-4, Ruby blasted a game-winning three run home run over the left field fence to give Iowa State a 7-6 victory.

Baylor is coming off a 4-0 win over Kansas on Sunday. Prior to the win, the Bears had lost seven straight conference games. They finished the conference season 3-15 and is 29-27 overall.

The Bears are led offensively by Kim Wilmoth with a team leading batting average of .343 and 51 hits. On her heels statistically is Kelly Osburn, who has a .341 batting average, 46 hits and a team-high nine home runs. Overall, the Bears are batting .272.

On the pitching side, Baylor is led by Cristin Vitek who has a 12-15 record with a 2.18 ERA and 177 strikeouts.

One of the bright spots for Iowa State in their games with Texas Tech was the pitching by freshman Kristen Karanzias and senior Jen Bice. Crowe said her team knows pitching will be important in order to go far in the conference tournament.

“It starts with mound. We just to have to keep that going,” Crowe said. “That’s going to be the biggest factor in terms of being in the game. To have a chance, we got to have good pitching.”

Senior third baseman Adi Blackmon said whoever is on the mound will need to be backed up with some stingy ISU fielding.

“With solid defense, it takes a lot of pressure off of our pitchers,” Blackmon said. “That way, we can concentrate on scoring more runs. Solid defense is a definite and we have been doing a good job of that lately.”

Iowa State will head into the game hitting at .223. Junior second baseman/shortstop Julia Lindsey is Iowa State’s team leader in batting with a .331 average. Ruby, a .276 hitter, has a team-high eight home runs and has 23 RBIs.

On the pitching side, Erica Martinez has started 16 games on the mound and has produced a 10-9 record with a 2.41 ERA and 127 strikeouts. Karanzias, who started 19 games, is 6-9 with a 4.15 ERA.

Martinez said the team has to determine selective pitches when facing the Baylor’s pitchers today.

“I think a lot of people just get too out of control,” Martinez said. “We just need to be patient all around and not get ahead of ourselves. I think we can do some damage at the Big 12 tournament.”