The ISU woman’s softball team’s record-breaking .325 team batting average from last spring did not show up like the Cyclones had hoped this weekend as they hosted the Big 4 Fall Tournament.

After beginning Oct. 4 with a decisive 18-1 victory over Upper Iowa University, Iowa State managed to only score a combined seven runs in the remaining three games of the tournament.

The Cyclone bats were as productive, if not more productive, than last season in the weekend’s opener as the team batted .543, bringing in 18 runs on 19 hits. Junior center fielder Brittany Gomez led the offensive effort going 4-for-4 with a triple and two stolen bases.

“In the first game, we saw the ball really well,” Gomez said. “After that, I think we got a little complacent.”

In the Cyclones’ final three games, the team batted under .300 on only 24 combined hits.

“We needed to make adjustments much faster than we did,” said head coach Stacy Gemeinhardt-Cesler. “We hit way too many ground balls and didn’t lift up and get extended enough.”

In the final games of the tournament, a lack of early hitting resulted in early deficits. By the fourth inning in each of the three games, the Cyclones found themselves trailing their opponents, even by as much as 1-6 against Northern Iowa.

“We needed to start a little bit earlier with more timely hitting,” Gemeinhardt-Cesler said. 

As a result of the early deficits, the Iowa State pitching staff had to work from behind the majority of the time. The game against Upper Iowa was the only opportunity for Cyclones to hit the mound with a lead.

“When we were winning [against Upper Iowa], I felt like the team had my back, which helped me be relaxed,” said freshman pitcher Bri Weilbacher, who started both the Upper Iowa and Northern Iowa games on the mound. “I like playing relaxed more than playing tense.”

Unfortunately for Weilbacher, unanswered Northern Iowa run production prevented her from having the comfort of pitching with a lead. 

However, despite the unfulfilled expectations from the offense, both players and coaches continued to focus on positive elements to take away from this weekend.

“I think we learned a lot from this first weekend of playing,” Gomez said. “Our freshman and newbies were stepping up, which is really good.”

Those freshman, from a hitting perspective, provided 11 hits among the four that received at-bats. Right fielder Kelsey McFarland led the freshmen hitting, hitting .333 with three RBIs over the four-game tournament.

From the pitching side, Weilbacher saw extensive time on the mound. In the three games that she participated, she conceded six earned runs on nine hits and seven strikeouts over eight-and-one-third innings pitched.

Going forward from this weekend, the Cyclones look to continue to work on the positive aspects of their game as well as develop the elements that are not yet where the team would like them to be.

“We’re not quite where we want to be right now,” Gemeinhardt-Cesler said. “I think we got great information from what we decided to work on [in practice] and what we didn’t work on, what we thought was kind of exposed. We just need to go from our list there and put it into practice.”

The Cyclones are set to continue their fall schedule at 11 a.m. on Oct. 11 as they host a weekend doubleheader against Iowa Central Community College at the Cyclone Sports Complex.