The Iowa State softball team’s weekend sweep of Baylor could have very well been called “The Katie Ruby Weekend,” after the Iowa State senior catcher.

Ruby hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the seventh inning to lift the Cyclones to a 7-6 come-from-behind victory over the Bears on Sunday in Big 12 play, to complete the sweep at the Southwest Athletic Complex.

Ruby hit a game-tying three-run homer over the left field fence to make it 4-4 earlier in the day, helping set-up her heroic finish.

In Saturday’s 8-7 come-from-behind extra-inning win, Ruby connected on a three-run homer to tie the game at seven-all.

Yes, that is three three-run homers in two days.

ISU head coach Ruth Crowe said that she has never seen a player hit two three-run homers in a game before. She also pointed out that Ruby has struggled at the plate before turning it on as of late.

“She has struggled this year — really finding her confidence. It started coming back slowly but surely in the last few weeks,” Crowe said. “Obviously she was really feeling it. I didn’t have any expectation that she was going to hit a home run on that last at-bat. I just wanted her to get a base hit.”

Tied at four, Baylor put together two runs off ISU senior pitcher/outfielder Erica Martinez on back-to-back RBI hits. That was when ISU begin their comeback.

Down 6-4, ISU shortstop Cary Akins hit a single to left off Baylor’s starting pitcher, Katie Decker. Decker was replaced by Cristin Vitek. Vitek got two quick outs.

Martinez then drew her third walk in the game and Baylor brought in pitcher Sarah Caudle to possibly save the game for the Bears. With the count 3-1, Ruby connected off a Caudle pitch and blasted it over the left field fence for the game-winner.

“I wasn’t expecting it. It felt great. I got up there thinking ‘you know, whatever happens, happens — single, double, home run, that’ll work’,” Ruby said. “I was trying to keep it going with two outs and see what happens. It felt great. Not at all was I thinking home run. My first thought was ‘yeah, that’ll be awesome like it did [on Saturday], but I wasn’t expecting too. I went up there confident as ever and hoping I get a single.”

In Sunday’s game, the Cyclones fell behind 4-0. In the first two innings, Baylor connected on a couple of solid hits, scored three runs, and took advantage of an ISU error off of Cyclones’ starter Kristen Karanzias.

But Martinez — who played in Saturday’s game despite missing five conference games previous — came in relief and pitched five solid innings. She allowed five hits, three earned runs, struck out four and walked none.

Senior third-baseman Adi Blackmon scored the first run of the game for the Cyclones on a wild pitch. After lead-off hitter Julia Lindsey ripped a triple to left-center field and Martinez drawing a walk, Ruby connected off a 2-2 pitch from Decker over the left-field fence to tie the game at four-all in the bottom of the fifth inning.

“Everybody knew that she was going to hit that home run,” Blackmon said. “This is awesome. This [sweep] lifted everything off our shoulders. We’re starting out now and going to win some games.”

Lindsey finished the game going 2-for-4 at the plate. Baylor was led by Kelly Levesque’s three hits. Sarah Caudle and Kelly Osburn both had two hits for the Bears, who dropped to 28-21 overall and 2-10 in the conference.

“I was wanting to see if we can get more out of Kristen. Kristen did a good job,” Crowe said, as her team improves to 16-22 overall and 4-7 in the conference. “Our defense again doesn’t step up and make the plays and it gets us in a hole right away. That is my biggest disappointment.”

In Saturday’s game, Lindsey, Ruby and Martinez each had two hits to lift Iowa State in the win. Karanzias pitched all eight innings as the freshman right-hander scattered 11 hits, allowed five earned runs, struck out three and walked none.

Prior to the weekend’s game, the Cyclones haven’t been able to sweep a conference team. But Crowe said the sweep of Baylor was huge for the team.

“We haven’t swept a team for a while, especially Baylor. It’s always good to beat Baylor,” Crowe said. “Hopefully it’ll help us because we have one of the toughest parts of our schedule coming up.”

Iowa State will return to action Wednesday as they travel to Iowa City to play in-state rival Iowa. First pitch is set at 4 p.m.