Iowa State softball will continue its season heading south once again, as they head over to Gainesville, Florida, this weekend to compete in the Aquafina Invitational hosted by the University of Florida. 

This invitational will feature host No. 2 Florida (10-1), Georgia Southern (7-2), Maryland (2-7), and Illinois State (4-6).

“It’s a tough weekend, we play No. 2 Florida twice, Georgia Southern is just a couple games behind, Maryland is another power five school, and Illinois State is always a tough [Missouri Valley Conference] team that gives people a lot of trouble,” said coach Jamie Pinkerton.

The Cyclones (6-4) look to continue their great offensive momentum coming off the Marucci Desert Classic. In Nevada they went 4-1 overall, beating Boise State (7-2), BYU (5-3), Nevada (6-5) and San Jose State (12-4). The only game dropped was 3-1 loss to Long Beach State.

“I think things came together, we pitched well for the most part,” Pinkerton said. “Things obviously heated up. I think it got a lot to do with second weekend out, players being more comfortable.”

The Cyclones were firing on all cylinders, returning with a .959 fielding average, along with their impressive batting which saw a total of 31 runs out of 40 hits throughout the weekend.

Kaylee Bosworth, junior catcher, had three consecutive home runs in her games against BYU, Nevada and San Jose State. She had five hits overall, but it was enough to get six RBIs in this last tournament.

Her biggest game came against San Jose State, where she went 3-for-4 with a home run, two RBIs and scored twice. 

“It just felt good to feel I was helping my team,” Bosworth said. “And it felt good to see my coaches hard work pay off ’cause they’ve really been working with me on my hitting.”

Sami Williams had a good weekend in Las Vegas, going for 1-for-3 against Long Beach State with a home run, the Cyclones’ only score of that game. She followed that up with a 1-for-3 performance against BYU, while running for a score and scoring fellow teammate Taylor Nearad.

She also went 3-for-4 against Nevada, scoring twice, and 2-for-4 in her game against San Jose State, where she ran for a score and one RBI.

“I think I did well offensively,” Williams said. “I definitely can have a lot to improve on defensively.”

She leads the team in fielding errors, but this is something Williams says is part of the learning process when traveling from field to field.

“We practice indoors the first two months of our season, and then we go out and play in warmer climates,” Williams said. “It’s a tough transition to go from playing every day where the ball has even hops every time, to adjusting to the dirt and the different speeds of the ball, and different hops.”

Longing for a defensive presence, Pinkerton was pleased with the progression of the team’s defensive play with this tournament being a challenge due to very potent teams in BYU, and defending Mountain West champions, San Jose State — both were 2017 NCAA Regional teams.

“This weekend we had just a few errors, it’s just things that will happen,” Pinkerton said. 

Nychole Antillon, infielder for the Cyclones, feels she can improve this weekend in Florida on the errors by moving onto the next play.

“Just communicating a lot to my teammates and errors are gonna happen. If that does happen then we have to have our teammates’ back and just come back from it,” Antillon said.

The senior out of California had a season-high 3-for-4 performance against San Jose State, has eight hits on the season to three runs and 18 putouts from seeing action at the third-base position.

Freshman Julie Lewis played her first full inning as an Iowa State Cyclone. She went for 2.2 innings in relief of starter Brianna Weilbacher and Savannah Sanders. She had previously only played 0.2 innings against Coastal Carolina.

Pinkerton is confident on their progression and is not ready to say anything is certain in the Aquafina Invitational.

“I think at this point I don’t think you can put a lot of emphasis on the record, but if we play like we did the first weekend we’re going to go 1-4 or 2-3,” Pinkerton said. “If we go and play like we did this weekend, 3-2 can be very good. You can’t go in and mark a win by Florida in their home field but anyone can win on any given day.”

The Cyclones will start the Aquafina Invitational at 8 a.m. on Friday, Feb. 23 against Georgia Southern.