The Iowa State softball team fell to the No. 9 Texas Longhorns Thursday in five innings to start off a three-game series. The Cyclones now fall to 12-20 on the season and 1-6 in Big 12 play.

Here are the three big takeaways from the 8-0 loss.

Six-run third inning kills momentum for Iowa State

Junior Saya Swain started the game for Iowa State as she held the Texas offense to zero runs through two innings. She collected four total strikeouts in her appearance of two and two-thirds innings of work.

The third inning was the main factor in the game as Texas scored six runs on Iowa State. The Cyclone defense had a chance to limit the number of runs against the Longhorns, but ended up committing four errors in that inning alone.

Ellie Spelhaug came in for relief of Swain to close out the inning and finish out the game for the Cyclones. Texas would then go on to score another two runs in the top of the fifth inning to close out the game early.

Hard contact all game does not result in runs for Cyclones

Iowa State’s offense hit the ball hard all day long against the Longhorns, but it did not result in much. The Cyclones ended the game with only two hits and no walks as they tried to get things going but could not.

The first hit came from freshman right fielder Tiana Poole to lead off the bottom of the second inning with a double that hit off the top of the wall. Senior catcher Mikayla Ramos led off the top of the fourth inning with a base hit up the middle but that would end up being the last hit of the day for Iowa State.

The Cyclones will look to bounce back with two games left against the Longhorns as they look to produce runs throughout the rest of the series.

One down, two to go

After a tough outing Thursday, the Cyclones now look ahead to the last two games of the series against No. 9 Texas.

The next matchup will be at 4 p.m. Friday, and the final matchup of the series against the Longhorns is currently scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday.