The Iowa State softball team earned a two-game split with the Minnesota Golden Gophers on Tuesday to move to 14-24 on the season.

The Cyclones took the first game by a score of 3-1 behind the hitting of Jessica Polo and the pitching of Mandy Loushin. Minnesota bounced back in the second contest for an 11-4 victory.

In the first game, Polo started off the scoring in the second inning with a little help from mother nature. Polo hit a high arcking shot that just cleared the left field fence with the aid of the wind to put ISU up 1-0.

“The way she is hitting the ball is a huge boost for us. I think she is really settling in as a hitter,” head coach Ruth Crowe said.

The Gophers answered quickly as Steph Midthun recorded an RBI double to tie the score at one apiece. However, the Cyclones would use a wild fourth inning to retake the lead.

Erin Woods singled, stole second and then advanced to third on a wild pitch. Meanwhile, Lauren Cathey worked deep into the count and drew a walk to put runners on the corners.

With Amy Crittendon pinch running for Cathey, ISU attempted a double steal with Crittendon being safe at second, but Woods was gunned down at the plate. With two outs, Polo beat out an infield single while Crittendon came all the way around from second to score.

“Jessica has slowly but surely worked her way back to the point where she finished last year. She has worked very hard and has been very persistent,” Crowe said.

Polo advanced to second with some heads-up running and then reached third when Michelle Junod bunted for a hit. Cinnamon Gooding added an RBI single to plate Polo to make the score 3-1 in favor of ISU.

That would be all the scoring Loushin would need as the junior pitcher held a potent Gopher offense to only two hits.

“We hit the ball really well, and it is nice to get some run support, and we played some great defense,” Loushin said.

Loushin held Minnesota’s star player Shannon Beeler to an 0-3 performance and ended the game with 10 strikeouts.

“I just tried to keep the ball low and moved it in and out. I got a few girls out on some rise balls, too,” Loushin said.

The second game of the double header would be a different story for Minnesota as it broke several records en route to an 11-4 victory.

Beeler smacked a two-out solo shot in the first inning to give Minnesota an early 1-0 lead. Beeler’s home run gave her 39 for her career, which is a Big 10 record. ISU came back to knot the game up at one apiece when Lauren Browning doubled and eventually scored from third on a balk.

Minnesota stormed right back and added a run early in the top of the second. With one out and runners on second and third, the Gophers attempted a suicide squeeze play. However, Cathey fielded the bunt at third base and lunged to tag the runner trying to score.

Browning followed up Cathey’s effort with a stellar defensive play of her own. From her second base position Browning dove to her left to knock down a ground ball and alertly threw out the Minnesota runner from her stomach.

Minnesota would add three more runs in the third inning despite Lisa Frank’s tremendous diving catch in center field. Frank showed her offensive side in the bottom of the inning by singling and stealing second. Woods lofted a single to left-center field to score Frank and narrow the gap to 5-2.

However, the remainder of the game would be the Jordanne Nygren show as Minnesota’s freshman sensation took Tacy Riddle deep for a three run blast in the fourth inning. Nygren duplicated that feat in the sixth inning by crushing another three run homer over the right field fence off of Riddle.

Nygren’s heroics put the Gophers in front by an 11-2 count, but ISU refused to give up as Polo hit her second home run of the day in the bottom of the sixth.

“My hitting is back to where it needs to be. My concentration is improving as we get into the heart of the season,” Polo said.

Kristen Shipley added an RBI double, which plated Junod and rounded out the scoring.

“We’re fighters, and we didn’t get down on ourselves. We have the hitters and the capabilities, so there’s no doubt that we can score runs,” Polo said.

The Cyclones will resume Big 12 competition this weekend when they face Baylor and Texas Tech.

“We need to go 4-0 this weekend, and there is no way around it. We have to get ourselves back into the [conference] race and the only way to do that is to sweep this weekend,” Crowe said.

Saturday’s game against Baylor begins at noon and will be played at the Southwest Athletic Complex.