With the season behind her, Iowa State Softball Coach Ruth Crowe is now looking to next year, hoping a promising crop of newcomers will help out a team that finished out the 2000 campaign with a relatively disappointing 18-29 record.

“We’re going to be pretty young next year, but we have six freshmen coming in who we think will all be vying for starting spots,” Crowe said. “They all can help right away.”

One of the Cyclones’ strengths next year will be its pitching staff, Crowe said, with junior Kristin Furguson and freshmen Jen Bice and Erica Martinez returning.

“We’ll have experience on the mound. [Bice and Martinez] learned this year what it takes to pitch in the Big 12. They know what they have to work on this summer, and those two are going to be critical,” she said.

The Cyclones ended their season last week in Oklahoma City at the Big 12 conference tournament, where they turned in a performance that was very indicative of their season as a whole.

“It wasn’t bad, and it wasn’t great. It was just okay,” Crowe said. “It’s not like we’re going out and dropping games to bad teams, we’re just lacking that little bit to turn the corner.”

After Iowa State opened up the tourney on May 10 with a 6-3 victory over Baylor, which won them a spot in the eight-team double elimination bracket, they lost two straight to drop out of the tournament.

“I was happy to knock off Baylor,” Crowe said. “A lot of people viewed that as an upset, but we were expecting to win.”

Crowe said the key to beating the Bears was the extra pop in the bats of catcher Lauren Cathey and designated hitter Cinnamon Gooding, who hit a pair of two-run dingers in the second and third innings, respectively.

Those were the first two home runs in conference play all season for the Cyclones, who throughout the spring were plagued by an occasionally weak offense, scoring two runs or less in about half of their games.

Senior Mandy Loushin picked up the win against Baylor, scattering six hits over the seven frames to hold the Bears in check.

The Cyclones were matched up with second-seeded Nebraska in the first game of the double elimination tournament, a game that Crowe said her team knew was going to be difficult.

And it proved to be just that, as Iowa State could only muster four hits against Nebraska ace Jenny Voss.

The Huskers, who went on to win their second straight conference title, were lead by tourney MVP Jennifer Lizama, who knocked in two of the team’s five runs.

“I was hoping after that game we could string some wins together,” Crowe said, but the Cyclones came up short on their final game of the year, losing a heartbreaker to Texas, 4-3.

Texas’ Charla Moore stymied Iowa State’s offense for the first four innings, not even giving the ‘Clones a base runner. Meanwhile, the Longhorns jumped all over Crowe’s charges from the start, taking two runs in the first frame and one in the second to establish an early 3-0 lead.

Loushin, on the mound again for the Cyclones, quickly settled down, only giving up one more run in the fifth. And as Texas cooled off, Iowa State heated up.

“Erica Martinez really broke it open for us,” Crowe said, referring to the freshman’s pinch-hit homer that led off the sixth.

The solo shot was the only score in the sixth, bringing the tally to 4-1 when Iowa State came to bat in the seventh.

Gooding singled to lead off the inning and shortstop Jessica Polo walked to set up two for Amberly Lessenger, who knocked them both around with a clutch double.

But Lessenger, who mere moments ago had been the hero, turned quickly to the goat when she got picked off between second and third, effectively killing the rally.

Crowe said she was still impressed with the resiliency of her team, noting that a win against the NCAA tournament-bound Longhorns would have been quite a feat.

“I thought [the rally] was outstanding,” she said. “We gave ourselves a chance in the seventh inning.”