Offense, offense, offense — Cyclones crush Wildcats

Brandon Belisle

The Iowa State Baseball team completely dismantled the Kansas State Wildcats in a doubleheader on Wednesday afternoon. The offense of the Cyclones exploded to defeat the Wildcats 16-8,14-8.

Iowa State starting pitcher Jeff Sebring had a good outing giving up eight runs on eight hits, while striking out six.

The Cyclones fell behind in the first inning of the opening game when the Wildcats scored three runs to ISU’s one.

In the second inning, the Cyclones opened a five run barrage, sparked by a two-run single by second baseman Cory Bohannon. Iowa State made the score 4-3 on an RBI double by center fielder Darrin DeReu. The ‘Clones added one more on a sacrifice fly by third baseman Sammy Cox.

Iowa State made the score 6-3 when catcher Troy Logan singled to left field, scoring DeReu.

The Wildcats closed to within 6-5 in the third, but the Cyclones came right back with two runs of their own.

Kansas State then made the score 8-7 with two runs in the fifth. The Cyclones proceed to close the door on any hopes the Wildcats had of a comeback, with an offensive explosion in the fifth.

With the bases loaded in the fifth inning, DeReu was walked and shortstop Ryan Harmon scored. Cox drove in one run on a sac fly and made the score 10-7. With runners on first and second, right fielder Clark Jones singled, scoring both and extending the lead to 12-7.

Kansas State scored one run in the sixth, but that would be the last run they would score.

The Cyclones collected one run in the seventh and three more in the eighth, making the final score 16-8.

In the second game of the twin bill the Cyclones continued the cavalcade of scoring by picking up five runs in the first inning.

With the bases loaded in the first inning, a Cox triple gave the Cyclones a 3-1 lead. Cox scored on a grounder to first by right fielder Scott Vance.

With the score 4-1, Jones sent a solo crush to deep center field to make the score 5-1.

The Cyclones picked up one more run in the second, before Kansas State scored four in the third inning.

The ‘Clones made the score 7-5 when they picked up one run in the third on the second home run by Jones, making a back-to-back dinger performance for the ISU right fielder.

In the fourth inning Kansas State added one run and then took the lead with two more in the fifth.

Down 8-7 in the eighth inning, Iowa State came alive and completely destroyed any chance the Wildcats had of splitting the series, by scoring seven runs, making the final score 14-8.

The offensive prowess of the Cyclones helped to give the pitching staff confidence on the mound.

“Whenever they would score, we would just come back and score more,” Sebring said.

The ISU starter was pleased with his performance, that improved his record to 4-7 on the season. “I’m pitching my best right now,” Sebring said. “I had no walks and six strikeouts, so that was nice.”

Iowa State head coach Lyle Smith was also happy with the performance of his ball club.

“I am very pleased we won the doubleheader,” Smith said. “If we had not won, then we would have been under a tremendous amount of pressure.”