The ISU baseball club will be swinging for the Central Plains Conference Championship this weekend.

The 8-2 Cyclones will host the 13-5 Nebraska Cornhuskers in a pair of doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday at Cap Timm Field.

The Cyclones will need to win two out of three games this weekend to win the conference championship. The fourth game does not count towards conference play.

If conference champions, the team would face the Wisconsin Conference Champions in a three-game series. The winner would go to the National Club Baseball Association World Series in Bradenton, Fla.

Club president Jake Reichling, who is one of the team leaders with a .467 batting average, said the Cyclones have solid pitchers and they will be ready to play this weekend.

“Our team has seven to eight guys that can pitch,” he said. “We can hold their bats more than they can hold ours.”

The team has a 2.15 ERA and allows an average of only two runs per game.

Tony Kruse, who boasts a 0.54 ERA, leads the charge on the mound for Iowa State. He was also this week’s pitcher of the week in the conference for his performances last weekend against John Brown. He threw a no-hitter against Nebraska earlier this season.

“Our defense played a great game,” said Kruse, referring to the no-hitter. “I just kept throwing strikes and things just fell in place.”

Kruse, who also leads the team with a .476 batting average, will be unable to play on Saturday due to a wedding, but he will return on Sunday as the starting pitcher.

Kurt Boettger will start on the mound for the first game on Saturday. He has a 3-0 record with a 3.27 ERA.

Corey Susie will start the second game of the doubleheader, having a 2-1 record with a 4.67 ERA.

Along with the tough defense, the Cyclones have been averaging nine runs a game this season.

“Our hitting has been a pleasant surprise,” said Chad Houston, who is one of 12 ISU players batting .300 or better. “We’ve been getting a lot of hits in two-out situations which helps keep the inning going.”

Reichling said the team has been working on hitting the ball down and not hitting as many pop-ups.

“We’re working on hitting more ground balls,” Reichling said. “Having the other team field ground balls will create more errors than pop-ups.”

Marking the first game of ISU baseball club history at the start of the season, the Cyclones defeated the Huskers 11-4, while coming up short in the second game of the doubleheader 7-5. The next day, the team pounded the Huskers 17-0, following a Nebraska 5-0 shutout.

Reichling said the team played well considering it was the first time playing competitively together.

“We learned that we can really compete with anyone out there,” he said.

But Houston said the team did struggle with mental fatigue during that first weekend.

“We weren’t mentally strong enough to play a doubleheader,” he said. “The mental aspect adds up to the little things, which we’ve been working on.”

Brandon Yuska, former walk-on for the ISU baseball team, has been injured since the first game against Nebraska and has watched the team get better and better with every game.

“The team is by far a better ball club than we showed in Nebraska,” Yuska said. “We’ve been pointing out little things that have fine-tuned the players.”

With the successful season, the team has been greatly appreciative this season with fans watching the Cyclones at home.

“We hope for good home-field advantage this weekend with another great crowd,” Reichling said.

Yuska said the conference title is on the line and he would like to see even more support from the fans.

“We’ll go out and try to bring the conference title home, so come out and watch some good baseball,” Yuska said.

The Cyclones are looking forward to continuing their seven-game winning streak this weekend and Houston said they will be up to the challenge.

“We will definitely be ready to play this weekend,” he said.