After going 3-2 in the opening weekend of the 2026 season, Iowa State softball remained above .500, going 2-2 at the Dream City Invitational in Arlington, Texas.
The Cyclones grabbed competitive wins against UT-Arlington and Tulsa in games two and four of the weekend, but got swept by Wisconsin in games one and five.
Iowa State will continue play next weekend at the Gopher Indoor Classic, which will take place inside U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. The Cyclones will take on Central Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota State and LIU twice.
Cyclones fall in game one against Wisconsin
Wisconsin came into the weekend with a similar story to Iowa State, having gone 3-2 in its opening weekend tournament. When the similar forces collided, it was the Badgers who came out with a 5-1 win in game one to open the weekend.
The first four innings were nothing but a pitching duel. Wisconsin freshman pitcher Berritt Herr gave up only three hits in the first four innings. Herr gave up two hits in the remaining three innings.
Iowa State pitcher junior Lauren Schurman pitched a scoreless first two innings. In innings three through five, junior Ava Mullen only gave up one run in the fifth, a left-field solo home run from Wisconsin senior Emily Bojan.
Sophomore Jessie Clemons answered the Badgers’ score with an RBI double into left field, a hit that drove senior right fielder Tiana Poole in for the only run for the Cyclones.
Schurman came back to pitch in the final two innings and gave up one hit in the sixth. However, all fell apart in the top of the seventh.
Schurman walked the second and third batters in the top of the seventh inning and hit the only batter by a pitch by either team in the entire game. The Cyclones gave up four runs in the top of the seventh. With no hits in the bottom of the inning, the Cyclones couldn’t claw back.
Iowa State rebounds with win against Tulsa in game two
Freshman pitcher Liv Palumbo started off giving up four hits and three runs against Tulsa in the first inning. The first run came off a wild pitch as Tulsa shortstop Maci Cole took home.
The Cyclones didn’t lose focus after their first-inning woes, however. Pitchers Mullen and Schurman evenly split the remaining six innings on the mound. From there, the Golden Hurricanes only scored two more runs in the remainder of the game.
Iowa State caught fire in innings four and six as they scored four runs in each. Senior first baseman Sydney Malott and sophomore second baseman Kadence Shepherd each had a two-run home run in the fourth inning. Together, those put the Cyclones up 4-3.
The lone fifth-inning run came from sophomore Clemons, who scored on an RBI single from senior centerfielder Tatum Johnson. That hit was one of two for Johnson throughout the game.
In the sixth inning, the Cyclones turned the Golden Hurricanes’ mistakes into golden opportunities. After a two-run RBI from sophomore right fielder Hayleigh Oliver, Clemons started a train of errors that got her all the way around.
Clemons’ one-run RBI single came from a fielding error by Tulsa centerfielder Mackenzy Glenn. Later, Clemons stole second, reached third base on a double-play and stole home to make it 9-4.
The Golden Hurricanes’ only run following came from a bad pitch from Schurman in the bottom of the ninth. Second and third were stolen, as well as home by Tulsa second baseman Faith Russell. The Cyclones went on to win 9-5.
Bats get hot in game four win against UT-Arlington
After Iowa State’s first of two games against UT-Arlington got cancelled, both the Cyclones and Mavericks swung strongly from the plate in a slugfest that the Cyclones won 15-11.
Iowa State used the first two innings to jump out to a 7-0 lead, only to have it completely erased by the Mavericks in the second and third, to make it 7-7. The Cyclones tallied six more runs in the top of the fourth to make it 13-7, and only gave up four runs in the remaining 3 ½ innings.
Sophomore catcher Karlee Ford hit a perfect four for four from the plate against the Mavericks. Ford scored two runs and led the team with five runs batted in during the game.
Oliver was second on the team with three hits in the game and was one of four Cyclones who batted in two runs against the Mavericks. Oliver also had one of only two of the Cyclones’ home runs, both coming in the fourth inning. The other came from freshman Kasey Kane.
Despite giving up 11 runs, the Cyclones’ pitchers only allowed two players to get two hits. Seven other players from UT-Arlington, however, had a hit in the game.
Cyclones flop in first inning against Wisconsin in game five
If the Cyclones were granted a chance to redo the bottom of the first, they could’ve delivered revenge to the Badgers. After giving up 10 runs in the bottom of the first inning, the Cyclones couldn’t climb back as they fell 11-8 against Wisconsin to close the weekend.
Palumbo gave up eight of those 10 first-inning runs and walked two batters. Of the four hits she gave up, two of them were RBI hits.
Despite the 10-0 deficit going into the second inning, the Cyclones fought back with an RBI single from McKenna Andrews in the second inning, as well as a solo home run from Clemons in the sixth.
In the third and fourth innings, the Cyclones scored three runs in each. Malott’s home run in the third brought in three runs for Johnson and Shepherd. Johnson and Shepherd each had home runs in the fourth inning.
Shepherd brought in Reagan Bartholomew, which made it 11-7 at that point, but as the only other run came in the sixth, the Cyclones couldn’t come back from their first-inning fiasco.
