The Central Plains Conference Championship is within the grasp of the ISU baseball club.

This weekend, the Cyclones will need to win all three games against winless John Brown University in order to win the conference title. If accomplished, the team will face the Western Lakes Conference Champion in a series for the right to advance to the World Series in Bradenton, Fla. If that is not accomplished, it’s over.

“We have a lot on the line and John Brown has nothing to lose,” team member Mike Zitelman said.

Club president Jake Reichling said the team will need to take care of business early in the games.

“They’re not the best team,” he said. “But any team can win on any given day and we’ll need to jump on them right away.”

The Cyclones put themselves in better position for the conference crown by defeating Nebraska in three out of the four nail-biter games this last weekend at Cap Timm Field.

Coach Chad Houston said the team came together and played their best baseball of the season.

“Everybody showed heart out there this weekend,” he said. “It’d be hard to pick one hero.”

The bats started swinging only moments after ISU basketball players Jackson Vroman and Tim Barnes threw the opening pitches of the day on Saturday. The Cyclones jumped to a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning.

Nebraska met the challenge in a fierce fashion, scoring nine runs in the second inning.

“We fell apart in the second inning,” Reichling said. “They were really hitting the ball.”

Even though the Cyclones faced an up-hill challenge, they crawled their way back into the game tying the Huskers 13-13. In the sixth inning, Iowa State scored four unanswered runs to take a 17-13 lead.

“In the seventh inning, J.D. Cue came to the mound and saved us,” Reichling said. “He shut the Huskers down, giving us the win.”

Iowa State won the high-scoring first game 17-13, but the Huskers’ last inning heroics in the second game of the doubleheader on Saturday proved to be too much.

In the top of the seventh inning, the Cyclones had a 6-5 lead with only one out left to win the game when Nebraska scored five runs and eventually won the game 10-8.

“Baseball is a strange game sometimes,” Reichling said. “In the seventh inning there were some bad bouncing ground balls that got passed us.”

As the Sunday sun shined brightly on Cap Timm field during the third game of the weekend, the Cyclones needed momentum as they were down 2-0 early in the game.

The answer came from Adam Daniels, who in the fourth inning chased down a well-hit ball and made a spectacular play throwing out the Husker at third base. The crowd went wild and the momentum brewed. There was more of Daniels in the fifth inning when he hit a triple, scoring two runs and later stealing home as the team went ahead 4-2.

“I probably hurt my elbow because it still hurts,” Daniels said. “But the plays seemed to excite and lift up the team.”

In the sixth inning, Nathan Kass blasted a three-run home run that sealed the victory for the Cyclones.

“Kass’s home run took the wind out of Nebraska’s sails and clinched our win,” Reichling said.

The last game of the weekend for the Cyclones showed a back-and-forth exciting battle.

Nebraska led 10-9 in the bottom of the seventh inning, when Zitelman came up to the plate. With a man on second base, he hit a double driving in the run, tying the game at 10-10.

“I was hitting the ball pretty well all weekend,” Zitelman said. “The pitcher left one over the plate and I got the double and batted in a run.”

In extra innings, the bases were loaded when Cyclone Evan Grieme took ball four as Iowa State walked in the winning run.

“We had an excellent turnout from the fans,” Reichling said. “They really helped us pull out the close games.”