Cyclones come up shy of perfect weekend
Iowa State utility player Carli Spelhaug (left) talks with her sister Ellie Spelhaug (right) as Iowa State plays the University of Oklahoma on March 28 at the Cyclone Sports Complex.
February 13, 2022
Iowa State softball split two games of a double header Sunday to finish the Doc Halverson UNI Dome Tournament.
Drake topped Iowa State 7-6 on Sunday in Cedar Falls and the Cyclones beat Northern Iowa 5-3.
In the first game, Iowa State had nine hits to Drake’s three, but, errors and walks allowed Drake to hang around and ultimately pull ahead late.
Iowa State had taken a 6-5 lead in the bottom of the sixth and looked poised to secure a win over its in-state rival.
But, multiple fielding errors in the seventh kept the inning alive before Drake’s Delaney Taylor singled to right field knocking in two runs and putting the Bulldogs ahead.
Iowa State starting pitcher Janessa Jasso walked nine in her 4.1 innings pitched while giving up just two hits. Ellie Spelhaug relieved Jasso and while she was the losing pitcher of record, she did not give up an earned run in 2.2 innings pitched.
Iowa State finished with four errors against the Bulldogs.
In the second half of the double header Iowa State took on the favorite in the Missouri Valley conference: Northern Iowa.
Playing in consecutive games, Iowa State bounced back to beat Northern Iowa behind an outstanding game from Saya Swain in the circle. The sophomore topped a school record while giving up three runs.
Swain stuck out a school-record 17 UNI batters on Sunday. Before giving up three runs in the sixth inning, Swain had allowed just one hit.
Swain won two games for Iowa State last season and was the winning pitcher twice at the UNI Dome tournament. Swain finished with 17 strikeouts, four hits, four walks and 3 runs allowed in six innings.
The Cyclone hitters provided Swain some run support. Milaysia Ochoa cracked an RBI single and Alesia Ranches hit her second home run of the season in the third. The three run home run brought Ranches to eight RBI on the year. Carlie Spelhaug added a solo home run in the fourth to make the score 5-0.
Karli Charles took over to begin the seventh. Charles gave up one run in an inning of work but would secure the save.
Iowa State finished the weekend tournament 4-1 and secured the top position on the tournament standings. Next, Iowa State heads to Las Cruces, N.M. to play at the Troy Cox Invitational.
