AMES – The Cyclones opened their fourth Big 12 series at home with a 5-3 victory over BYU, improving to 17-15 overall and 7-3 in conference play.
Iowa State counters early BYU run
BYU struck first with a leadoff solo home run in the opening inning. Iowa State responded in the second with a two-out, two-run homer from freshman Karlee Ford to mark her first career home run.
The Cyclones then put up three more runs in the fourth, two on a sacrifice fly and another on an RBI single, to extend their lead to 5-1. The Cougars answered with two sacrifice flies but couldn’t close the gap.
Iowa State head coach Jamie Pinkerton credited the team’s ability to adjust at the plate as a key factor in the win.
“In the first couple of innings, I think the changeup kept us off balance,” Pinkerton said. “We kind of talked about it after the first and second and just told them, ‘You can’t look for both pitches, you’ve got to pick one and go with it.’ In the fourth inning, we started getting on her a little bit by changing our approach. You can watch things on video and try to simulate it on the machine, but sometimes you just have to get in the game and adjust.”
Cyclones get a lot of offense going
Offensively, the Cyclones collected seven hits, one walk, left 10 runners on base and struck out eight times. Junior Tatum Johnson and Ford each recorded two hits, while three others chipped in with one apiece.
Johnson reached base three times and scored twice. Ford drove in three runs between her home run and an RBI single. Junior Reagan Bartholomew, who played in her first game back from injury, added a hit and later scored. Sophomore Paige Zender contributed with an RBI sacrifice fly, bringing in freshman Ireland Buss and Johnson.
“It was cool,” Johnson said. “We have a lot of preparation with the pitchers, setting up machines to match them, so I just had to trust my preparation and that’s what I did. I felt comfortable today.”
Pitching, defense close it out
On the mound, sophomore Lauren Schurman pitched five strong innings, and allowed three hits, three runs (one earned), one walk and struck out two on 78 pitches (64% strikes).
Freshman Abby Huhn took over in the sixth, faced four batters and allowed two hits before junior Jaiden Ralston closed out the final 1.1 innings, in which she surrendered just one hit while striking out one.
Ford, the catcher, praised the pitching staff for executing against a dangerous BYU lineup.
“I love the pitching staff. They’re all my best friends,” Ford said. “Today, they really came out and showed what they could do. We had a very tight strike zone, so being able to command that and work against a really good hitting team like BYU was impressive.”
Defensively, the Cyclones committed two errors, which resulted in two unearned runs and made the game closer than it could have been.
“We were a little shaky defensively in that one inning where they got a couple of runs,” Pinkerton said. “If we make a play in right, they might still get a run, and if we field that groundball cleanly, maybe it’s still 5-1 instead of 5-3. That’s what I told them in the locker room. We just have to be cleaner.”
The Cyclones will look to build on their momentum, having won six of their last seven games, as they take on BYU in the second game of the series at 4 p.m. Friday from the Cyclone Sports Complex.
