The Cyclones concluded their first conference games of the season, facing No. 24 Oklahoma State, resulting in an outing in three games.

Here are some key bases to cover.

Single

The season leader, and possible All-American Sami Williams slowed down this weekend. Could there be more film on the Cyclones’ promising standout?

Regardless, the most outlying factor in these two games was the showing of the Oklahoma State pitchers. On the first two games, the Cowgirls pitchers neutralized Williams’ hitting ability.

On three games, she stepped up to the plate a total of 14 times, hitting four pitches. All these hits came on Sunday.

In her first two games, she stepped up eight times, swinging for zero hits on two consecutive games. This marked the second time this season that teams have managed to have her hitless in two consecutive games. In all these four games, the Cyclones were 1-3.

The third game, the Cowgirls would not have Williams figured out, rebounding for 4-6, including a game triple to set up a scoring play by Sydney Stites and a run scored.

Double

What do you get when you bring a former Big Sky Conference player of the year (2016) to play for the head coach that recruited her to a college program?

You get Stites going off for another home run in another competition, the former Montana standout continues to show why she deserves to be in the Big 12.

While teammate Williams slowed down, the Cyclones still had Stites to depend on, and continue to give hits on much needed moments to keep Iowa State in the games.

If it had not been for her tying home run in game three against the Cowgirls, the Cyclones would have not had a chance to play extra innings in an opportunity to allow for a chance at victory.

On Friday, Stites went 1-for-3, on Saturday she went for 1-for-4 with a run scored, on Sunday she came up with an impactful 3-for-5 on Sunday to lift the Cyclones from a 4-0 deficit to win 5-4.

Triple

Pitchers had their work cut out for them. 

Brianna Weilbacher started the series on Friday, going out for six innings, allowing eight hits, and four earned runs on eight total runs.

Emma Hylen and Savannah Sanders played on the second game. Hylen started the game, playing 5.1 innings, allowing four earned runs of the seven runs total.

Sanders came in to relief for the final inning for the Cyclones, allowing a hit and striking out a batter, but wasn’t able to pull the Cyclones forward.

In the third game, pitcher Sanders started the game, and allowed four earned runs out of the four runs and allowed six hits. Hylen would appear in her relief.

In her time in the mound, Hylen would conduct an impressive outing going off little rest, as she played two games consecutively.

In her eight innings of play, the Minnesota native allowed no runs on five hits, striking out three batters, and winning the game for the Cyclones, to get their Big 12 record to 1-2.

Home Run

The Big 12 is a scary place for softball, even though the Cyclones lost their first games in conference play, the Cyclones are not at all out by any means.

And if today’s game proved anything, the Cyclones can compete in the Big 12, never stepping down from any challenge presented. The Cyclones today proved regardless of their deficits they can quickly turn any game into a double-digit showdown of wits.

In three games played, half the teams including Iowa State had a losing record. This included Kansas and Texas Tech, Baylor has yet to play any Big 12 games and will begin on March 29 going against the 2017 Big 12 champions in Oklahoma.

The Cyclones were 6-12 last year in the Big 12, defeating Oklahoma once, Texas twice and swept Kansas in three games played.

Iowa State will face Texas next week and end their regular season facing Kansas. While still facing Oklahoma, Texas Tech and Baylor all in between.

The Cyclones have a 17-19 record after starting their conference competitions, similar to last year’s 17-19 record after facing Texas Tech in their first Big 12 games.