The ISU softball team opened its home season Sunday with two games against Kansas, falling in the first before serving the Jayhawks a dose of Cyclone hospitality.

Kansas shut out Iowa State in the first game, winning 7-0. In the second game, Iowa State rolled to a 3-1 victory.

Both teams entered the day winless in Big 12 play. Kansas, ranked 24th in the nation, moved to 21-9 on the season and 1-5 in conference play. Iowa State now sits at 13-18 overall and 1-3 in the Big 12.

Kansas got its offense going early in the first game. Infielder Jessica Moppin drilled a two-run home run to right field in the first inning.

The Cyclones attempted to respond in the second inning. Catcher Katie Ruby ripped a grounder past second base for a single. Designated hitter Molly McNertney followed with another grounder down the third base line, but solid defense by Kansas resulted in a double play. Iowa State did not seriously threaten Kansas again in the first game.

In the second game, Iowa State turned the tables on Kansas, taking its own early lead. Pitcher Kristen Karanzias retired each of the three batters she faced in the first inning. Then, Iowa State began its attack.

With Adi Blackmon on base, Ruby blasted a triple — just the second for Iowa State this season — scoring Blackmon. Lindsey Herrin followed with a double to left-center, knocking in Ruby.

In the second inning, Moppin nearly delivered again for Kansas, lifting another deep fly ball, but it did not have the distance to clear the fence and only resulted in a single. Later in the inning, Moppin was on third base when she was hit by a line drive by Sylvia Pfeiffer. The game was delayed for a few minutes as Moppin fell in pain, but she remained in the game. Pfeiffer’s line drive was ruled foul.

Moppin eventually scored on a Nettie Fierros sacrifice fly, but it was Kansas’ only run of the game.

Defense dominated the next few innings until Iowa State added to its lead in the sixth. Kelly Wardein’s solo home run to left field provided the game’s final margin.

Karanzias, who pitched the entire second game, picked up her second victory of the season. She said that Wardein’s home run gave her an extra boost.

“That was big,” she said. “That was an insurance run.”

ISU head coach Ruth Crowe was happy that Karanzias was able to go the distance.

“She has struggled of late, so that was really big for her to get the complete game,” Crowe said.

The difference between the two games was which team came to play, Crowe said.

“I thought that [Kansas was] ready to go [in the first game],” she said. “We played really bad. It’s about like we traded uniforms. Kansas was on the defensive [in the second game].”

The Cyclones were happy to be playing at home, but neither Crowe nor her players thought that it made a difference.

“It’s always great to play at home, but you wouldn’t always call it an advantage,” Herrin said.

“Typically we don’t play that great at home,” Crowe said. “We’ve only had one practice here. It takes a while for the home-field advantage to kick in.”

Iowa State will now try to carry its momentum into a Wednesday matchup in Ames with sixth-ranked Nebraska.