The Iowa State baseball team continued to struggle as it dropped three straight games this weekend to No. 21 Texas Tech.

The series opener was a hotly contested game in which the Cyclones were almost able to pull off the upset.

After falling behind 7-1 after five innings, the Cyclones came back to make it a game and gave the Red Raiders a scare in their home stadium.

ISU played “small ball” to get themselves back into the thick of things.

Beau Hampton and Spencer Allen each had two-run singles in the top of the sixth inning as ISU scored five times to cut the lead to 7-6.

Iowa State scored the five runs on six singles.

After the Red Raiders’ Chaz Eiguren nailed a solo homer to make it a two run deficit in the seventh, ISU once again fought back.

Jade O’Brien led off the inning with a triple, and he scored on Hampton’s ground ball to provided the final margin at 8-7.

Allen led off the ninth with a double, but his teammates failed to pick him up, and the Cyclones were sent home with another defeat.

The game featured Shane Wright (7-2). The All-American pitcher was actually roughed up by the Cyclones for seven runs in seven innings of work but got the win.

Iowa State was led by Mack Paciorek who was 4-4 from the plate. Ben Van Iderstine had two hits to extend his hitting streak to 13.

Mike Laesch (0-6) was saddled with the loss, as he allowed seven runs in five innings.

Cyclone standout Aaron Runk hurt his leg sliding in the game and had to sit out the next two games due to the injury.

The next two games went the way two many expected the first two to go. In action on Saturday, the Red Raiders used 19 hits to score 16 runs on the beleaguered Cyclone pitching staff to score a 16-3 win.

Tech scored 11 runs in the second inning which removed all doubt from this one.

The game was halted mercifully after the seventh inning due to the Big 12 conference’s 12-run rule.

ISU did have two home runs on the day: one by O’Brien, his sixth of the year, and one by Joe Siple, who dialed long distance for the third time in the season.

Brian Curtin lasted only 1 1/3 innings before being taken out, having surrendered eight hits and nine runs in the rough outing.

Relief Dave Rossman and Ryan Burgner also struggled.

Easter Sunday saw the Cyclones lay another egg, as they were trounced 12-2 by the Red Raiders.

Tech scored in each of the first six innings, and had at least two runs in five of the six.

ISU’s Jeremy Taylor took the loss, going only four innings and giving up eight runs.

ISU was led by Siple, O’Brien and Van Iderstine, who each collected two hits at the plate.

The sweep dropped the Cyclones’ record to 7-23 overall. They are winless in 15 games in the conference.

Tech was the fifth team in the conference to sweep the Cyclones. ISU has had its next two scheduled games cancelled due to weather but is looking to make up one of those this week.