Last season, the Iowa State baseball team finished in last place in the league. This year, the squad is vying for a spot in the Big 12 Tournament.

ISU inched closer to making that goal a reality by taking two of three games from the Texas Longhorns in front of crowds of 5,680.

The Cyclones won both ends of the doubleheader on Saturday by scores of 16-8 and 11-7, but fell 11-4 on Sunday.

“We felt very good about winning two of three ball games,” Smith said. “They were going at us pretty good. We played good baseball in a hostile environment.”

After the weekend series, ISU sits in seventh place in the league, one game behind Oklahoma State for the sixth and final playoff spot in the Big 12 Tournament.

The precarious position is a new experience, but one the Cyclones are glad to be in.

“It’s a real volatile situation,” ISU Coach Lyle Smith said. “[But] they’re responding very well.”

Senior Matt McDonough said the level of energy and excitement created by the playoff possibility provides a much different atmosphere for the players than last season.

“We’ve got a shot at it. We can really make a run at it,” he said. “We can go somewhere [the Big 12 Tournament,] and that’s tremendous motivation for us.”

Shawn Leimbek went 4-for-6 to lead the Cyclones in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader. ISU pounded out 20 hits victory, with seven players recording more than one hit.

In addition to Leimbek’s performance, Aaron Runk, Brad Bjorklund and Jade O’Brien logged three hits, while McDonough, Jeff Duncan and Bill Uelmen each recorded two.

Runk’s leadoff home run, his fifth blast of the season, in Saturday’s opening game set the pace for ISU.

“Everyone kind of followed suit,” Smith said of his team’s offensive production.

McDonough, ISU’s designated hitter, said the key to the team playing well of late has been solid performances up and down the batting order.

“It just seems like everyone is hot right now,” he said.

After trading runs in the first inning, ISU put two on the board in the second to take a 3-1 lead. Texas responded with three runs in the bottom of the inning to go on top 4-3.

Not to be outdone, the Cyclones exploded for six runs in the third inning to take a 9-4 lead. McDonough, Bjorklund, Runk and Leimbek all contributed RBI hits for ISU.

After tacking on three in the fifth and one more in the sixth, the Cyclones cruised to a 13-7 advantage en route to the 16-8 win.

ISU pitcher Nate Hilton was roughed up in his start, allowing seven runs on nine hits in 2 1/3 innings. But the Cyclone bullpen clamped down.

Shawn Sedlacek notched his second straight win after giving up only one run on two hits in 5 2/3. Steve Larkin pitched a perfect ninth to seal the Longhorns’ fate.

In the nightcap, ISU held off a late Texas rally to claim an 11-7 victory.

Trailing 8-4 heading into the home half of the eight, the Longhorns picked up three runs to pull within one.

However, the Cyclones answered in the top of the last inning with three runs thanks to base raps by Leimbek and Tom Wierzbicki. The four-run cushion gave Larkin room to work for his second save.

Brad Waldron was the winning pitcher for ISU, evening his season mark at 3-3. He gave up six runs on nine hits in seven innings of work.

Uelmen, mired in a mini-RBI drought, knocked in four runs on three hits. He delivered a key two-out, two-run triple in the seventh.

McDonough launched a bomb to center field for his seventh home run of the year.

He said his goal has remained the same throughout the season — to stay consistent.

He said that consistency now becomes especially important given the Cyclones’ current situation in the conference standings.

“We need to win a majority of the games we have left,” he said. “To be there some and not others is not going to work.”

On Sunday, Longhorn hurler Scott Dunn finally corralled the Cyclone batters, holding the high-powered offense to four runs and seven hits in 7 2/3 innings.

“We didn’t come up with the same timely hits,” Smith said.

A pair of freshmen, Duncan and Bjorklund, each collected two-hit games for ISU.

Runk, who leads the conference in batting average, had his hitting streak snapped at 17 games. It was his first game without a base knock since March 14.

The Cyclones (12-16, 5-8) travel to Northern Iowa today for a battle with the Panthers at 6 p.m. before returning home tomorrow for a single game against Minnesota.