The Iowa State baseball team continued its intrastate success by winning both games of a doubleheader (18-10, 12-11) against Northern Iowa Sunday at Cap Timm Field.

In the first game, the Cyclones scored a school-record 14 runs in the fifth inning by recording only four hits from 18 batters in the process. The 14 runs also tied the Big 12 record for most runs scored in a inning.

Entering the bottom of the fifth, Iowa State had their backs against the wall trailing the Panthers, 9-1, but several ISU batters stepped it up a notch.

Right fielder Ben Van Iderstine hit a single and sacrifice fly to knock in two runs for ISU. Center fielder Matt Nordby hit two doubles bringing in five baserunners and had six RBIs overall in the game. Shortstop Mack Paciorek also hit a single gaining two RBIs.

Naturally, ISU head coach Lyle Smith was pleased with the big inning.

“There was good production that inning,” he said. “I would like to see more innings like that one for us and less from our opponents.”

After the high-scoring inning, the Cyclones were up 15-9 and that was more than enough runs for Cyclone pitcher Charly Bigwood.

Starting pitcher Brian Curtin struggled, giving up eight earned runs in 4 2/3 innings, but Bigwood collected the win (3-1) by giving up three hits, one earned run and a strikeout in four and one-third innings.

UNI pitcher Matt Cobb was given the loss (1-3).

Bigwood was thankful for the Cyclones’ great hitting.

“The 14 runs we scored in the fifth made it real easy on me,” he said. “In the cold weather today it took me a long time to get warmed up, but I got my slider working good, and I let the defense do the work.”

The scheduled seven-inning game two was deja vu all over again for the Cyclones.

Once again ISU trailed UNI 9-1 heading into the bottom of the fifth.

ISU exploded for six runs on six hits, narrowing the gap, then outscored the Panthers by two runs in the sixth to tie the game up at 11-11 and would later force extra innings.

The Cyclones could manage no runs in the seventh, but ISU would find success in the eighth.

Pitcher Josh Twedt held his ground only giving up a single, but no UNI players would reach home plate in the eighth.

The bottom of the eighth inning began with designated hitter Jade O’Brien getting hit by UNI pitcher Mike Egger.

Then Van Iderstine was able to reach first base on a fielder’s choice.

Egger gave up a single by first baseman Joe Siple, putting runners at the corners. The next batter, catcher Derrick Roberts, was walked to load the bases. Finally, Nordby stepped up to end the game.

Nordby hit a hard ground ball to UNI second baseman Aaron Houndeshell, who bobbled the ball and was not able to make a play.

Houndeshell’s error was enough to let Van Iderstine score the game-winning run.

In addition to the game-winning score, Van Iderstine was huge in the second game, hitting two singles, a triple and leading Iowa State with three RBIs.

Twedt’s efforts were enough to give him the win (3-1) and Egger collected the loss (3-2).

Smith also thought that the home-field advantage played a part in the Cyclones’ victories.

“If we had got down that many runs on the road, I don’t know if we would have won,” he said. “But we had a team effort today with lots of heroes.”

Iowa State’s next home game will be Tuesday, at 3 p.m. when they meet Grand View.

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Game 1
N. Iowa 230 131 000 — 10 14 3
Iowa St. 001 0(14)0 03x — 18 14 2
Cobb, Sabers (5), Lubach (5) and Ciarrichi; Curtin, Bigwood (5) and McNertney. W—Bigwood, 3-1. L—Cobb, 1-3. HRs—N. Iowa, Zimmer 2 (11), Brunner (5).
Game 2
N. Iowa 121 232 00 — 11 10 3
Iowa St. 000 164 01 — 12 14 2
Martin, Egger (6), Chamberlain (8) and Waller; Laesch, Nelson (4), Twedt (6) and McNertney, Jarvis and Roberts. W—Twedt, 3-1. L—Egger, 3-2. HRs—N. Iowa, Fjelland (6), Brunner (6), Eldridge (3), Houdeshell (1); Iowa St., Allen (2).