The Iowa State baseball team completed a six game road trip over spring break against Arkansas, Wichita State, and Texas Tech. The Cyclones, facing tough competition throughout the trip, fell in each of the games giving them a 5-11 record overall and a 1-5 record in conference play.

Opening competition against the Arkansas Razorbacks on March 10, the Cyclones fell 21-11 in a wild game. Arkansas opened the scoring with a three run first inning, but ISU responded with three runs of their own in the second. The Razorbacks came back to take the lead with six more runs in their half of the second. Continuing to score at least one run per inning throughout the sixth, the Razorbacks opened a commanding lead.

The Cyclones added single runs in the third and fourth innings before exploding for six runs in the ninth but couldn’t capture the victory.

Right fielder Clark Jones led the Cyclones going 3-for-5 with two runs batted in and scoring two runs. Jones also hit his fifth home run of the season. Junior Shawn Leimbeck also went 3-for-5 and drove in two runs. The Cyclone first baseman continued his hot streak, hitting .600 in the last six outings. Freshman shortstop Jade O’Brien came off the bench to go 2-for-2 with a home run.

The Cyclones then traveled to Wichita, Kan. for a two game series with Wichita State. In the first game, the Cyclones fell 18-11 after getting off to a slow start. Iowa State scored only three runs in the first four innings, while the Shockers scored 13 of their 18 runs through four innings. The Cyclones committed five errors to only three for Wichita State.

Leimbeck again had a solid game for the Cyclones, going 3-for-6, driving in two runs and scoring a run himself. O’Brien had impressive back-to-back games with a 3-for-4 effort against Wichita State, scoring two runs. Senior catcher Guye Senjem went 3-for-5 driving in two runs and scoring two runs.

In the second game of the series, Iowa State fell in extra innings 8-7. The Cyclones went toe-to-toe with the Shockers. Deadlocked at six apiece after nine innings, ISU nearly stole the victory by scoring in the top of the eleventh inning to take a one run lead. The Shockers wouldn’t be denied as they scored two in their half of the inning to steal the victory from the Cyclones.

Senior Scott Vance went 3-for-6, scoring two runs to lead the Cyclones, notching his first home run of the season for Iowa State’s run in the eleventh. Senior Chris Grubb was 2-for-3 while Leimbeck extended his hitting streak to 10-straight games. Junior Scott Grawe pitched only two innings, giving up seven runs, in taking his first loss of the season.

After taking a day off to travel, the Cyclones then faced the No. 14 Texas Tech Red Raiders for a three game series in Lubbock, Texas. Iowa State fell 14-0 in the first game of the series as the Red Raiders dominated, limiting the Cyclones to only two hits and recording seven strikeouts against ISU batters. Senior Mike Bahun and newcomer Matt McDonough were the only Cyclones to record hits against the Red Raiders, who also ended Leimbeck’s 10-game hitting streak. ISU pitcher Nathan Teut suffered his first loss of the season, throwing four innings and allowing seven hits. Iowa State was again shut out by the strong Texas Tech team in the second game, falling 7-0.

The Cyclones rebounded by recording nine hits but were unable to score as the Red Raiders worked their way out of every Cyclone scoring threat.Third baseman Bill Uelmen led the Cyclone cause with a 3-for-4 effort, recording his third triple of the season.

Bahun and Vance each went 2-for-4, with Vance getting his sixth double of the season. ISU’s Ryan Seifert pitched 5.1 innings giving up six runs on six hits, although only three of the runs were earned. The loss evened Seifert’s record at 2-2.

The Cyclones again fell to the No. 14 Red Raiders, 6-4, in the final game of the series.

Improving in each of the three games, the Cyclones recorded eleven hits and didn’t commit an error. Scoreless after one inning, ISU took the lead in the second, only to have the Red Raiders even the score.

Texas Tech took the lead for good after scoring two in the fifth. ISU couldn’t come back as they failed to score in the final four innings.

Jones led the Cyclone offense going 3-for-4 with two RBI and scoring two runs. Leimbeck went 2-for-4 to get back on track while Vance went 2-for-5 and scored a run.

The Cyclones compete next at Creighton University on Mar. 19 and have their first home game on Mar. 20 against University of Wis.-Milwaukee.

Competition begins at 2 p.m.