Down 5-2 in the eighth inning to Texas Tech on Friday, Iowa State Manager Lyle Smith made an important decision.

Feeling that his team had little chance to mount a comeback, Smith inserted little-used pitchers Charly Bigwood, Sam Blahnik and Dave Rossman, instead of ISU’s regular middle reliever Darin Nelson. The result: a 12-2 final score in favor of the 19th-ranked Red Raiders.

Fast forward to Saturday. After ISU starter Brad Waldron was tagged for six runs in four innings of work, the situation looked similar. This time, Smith called on Nelson.

Nelson promptly shut down the Tech batters, allowing just one run on six hits.

The right hander did his job, keeping the Cyclones in the ballgame and doing his part to set the stage for a miraculous Cyclone comeback.

“Darin did an outstanding job,” Smith said. “He’s an outstanding competitor.”

ISU trailed 7-5 heading into the home half of the ninth, when Jade O’Brien led off the Cyclone uprising with an opposite-filed two bagger. Clean-up man Matt McDonough followed with a clean single to left, putting runners at the corners.

Cyclone RBI leader Bill Uelmen brought O’Brien to the plate with a sacrifice fly to right, pulling ISU to within one.

With McDonough on first, Smith inserted pitcher Shawn Sedlacek as a pinch runner for the designated hitter. Tom Wierzbicki kept the rally alive by coming up with his third hit of the evening.

After Doug Kinsel went down looking for the second out of the inning, catcher Adam Scott took his whacks. Inserted in the eighth inning, Scott made his first plate appearance a memorable one for everyone at Cap Timm Field.

Kinsel bounded a routine groundball to Tech shortstop Jason Huth, but before the crowd could get up to leave, ISU got a break. Huth, trying to force Wierzbicki at second, threw wide of the bag. The ball rolled into short right field, allowing Sedlacek to score from second, tying the game 7-7.

That set the stage for freshman shortstop Brad Bjorklund. Bjorklund, 0-for4 on the afternoon, quickly fell behind in the count 0-2.

Not wasting a pitch, Tech reliever Joe Smith threw a fastball. Bjorklund turned on the pitch, driving it over the left field wall for a game-winning three-run homer, leaving Tech players stunned and sending the short-sleeve crowd into a frenzy.

Thinking the ball was gone, the crowd rose as the freshman connected, but Bjorkund wasn’t quite so confident in the ball’s distance.

“It’s pretty amazing, ” Bjorklund said. “I’m a nine-hole hitter, so you’re never really sure.”

The Cyclone skipper shook his head as recalled the game’s highlights leading up to the final at-bat.

“[And] Brad steps up and has the biggest hit of his career,” Smith said of the storybook ending.

Smith wasn’t sure if the 10-7 game was the greatest win in his career, but he did know how important it was for the Cyclones in their attempt to qualify for the Big 12 Tournament.

“It was fun,” he said. “It was one we really had to win.”

The ninth-inning heroics were only part of the story. ISU trailed by as many as five runs, at 7-2.

But the Cyclones, who were playing with a makeshift lineup since top-hitter Shawn Leimbek came up hobbling after landing awkwardly on first base during Friday’s game, would not let anything, even a tender hamstring get in their way.

In the eighth inning, Smith went to his wounded warrior in desperate need of a key hit. Leimbek delivered, a la Kirk Gibson, by drilling a double down the right field line driving home Doug Kinsel.

After limping his way to second base, Leimbek was lifted for pinch runner Jon Ross. Ross scored two batters later on a groundout to second by Aaron Runk.

“Sometimes you just have to gamble. Today, everything we did as a staff worked out,” Smith said. “Those were the moves we had to make.”

Smith said the pair of runs in the eighth was the biggest key to the comeback. Without the two runs in that frame, the ninth may never have happened, he said.

Bjorklund was pleased with the team’s toughness. “We kept on chipping back,” he said. “We just turned it on late”

The Cyclones trailed throughout, giving up one run in the first and two in the second to the Red Raiders.

ISU closer Steve Larkin was credited with the victory, his third of the season, after recording the final two outs in the top of the ninth. Raider reliever Joe Smith suffered the loss after forfeiting six runs in 1 2/3 innings of work.

The ISU defense sparkled once again, not committing an error and turning up a few gems, including a nifty 5-2-3 double play to get out of a jam in the fourth inning.

The offensive production late in the game was something the team could not do in Friday’s loss.

ISU rapped out 13 base hits, but could manage only two runs. The Cyclones stranded 11 runners in the nine-inning game. McDonough and O’Brien each finished with three hits for ISU.

ISU hurler Nate Hilton took the loss to drop his record to 1-2. Hilton surrendered five runs on 10 base hits but fanned seven Red Raiders. Texas Tech star pitcher Shane Wright struck out nine en route to his ninth win against one defeat.