Omaha Powers Past Iowa State, 9-4

AMES, Iowa – The Iowa State softball team could not recover from a seven-run deficit, falling to Omaha 9-4 Wednesday afternoon at the Cyclone Sports Complex. The loss dropped ISU to 22-21 on the season while Omaha improved to 21-23.

Iowa State got multi-hit games from Cathlin Bingham and Jorden Spendlove, while Nychole Antillon drove in a pair of runs. The Cyclones picked up nine strikeouts as a pitching staff, but could not recover from a pair of early home runs allowed on a windy day in Ames.

Homers Get Mavs Ahead
After a scoreless first inning on both sides, which included both starting pitchers striking out the side, UNO were the first on the board in the second. Back-to-back one-out single by Sydney Hames and Nicole Warren got the Mavs a pair on. After Stacy Roggentien recorded her fourth strikeout of the game to get to two outs, she faced up to UNO's Allie Mathewson. However, it was the Omaha centerfielder who got the better, as she rode the wind to hit a 3-run homer to left and put UNO ahead 3-0.

The Mavericks then led off the third inning with another homer as Tonya Peterson fired a no-doubter over the scoreboard in left to make it 4-0. They would add another run in the inning on bases loaded-walk drawn by Carly Nielsen off Brianna Weilbacher. The fourth inning saw the Mavs make it 7-0 as Megan May drove in a two-RBI single to center.

Iowa State Gets on the Board
The fourth inning saw the Cyclones finally get on the board. Aly Cappaert was hit by a pitch to start the inning. Her pinch runner, Hayley Womack, was eventually worked around on a wild pitch and groundout to set the stage for Jorden Spendlove, who fired an RBI-single up the middle to score Womack and get the Cyclones off the mark.

Sixth Inning Chaos
The sixth inning featured some of the most unique plays seen this season to help get the Cyclones on the board. Omaha was readying to run-rule Iowa State after May and Hames posted back-to-back RBI-singles to make it 9-1 Iowa State.

The Cyclone offense was right to work in the bottom of the sixth, as Lexi Slater drew a walk and Maddie Reese was hit by a pitch. Spendlove got her second hit of the base with a base hit to center, but ISU could not bring in a run as Slater got caught in a run down after deciding to head back to third, only to see Reese already on the bag. Reese then got caught in a rundown of her own as she tried to score on Kelsey McFarland's grounder to short. There would be no more rundowns as Nychole Antillon cleared the two runners on base with a hit to right-center that brought Spendlove and McFarland home.

ISU added another run in the bottom of the seventh. Cathlin Bingham got her second hit of the game with an infield single. Two batters later, Slater fired a hard grounder to left-center that rolled all the way to the wall. Bingham came around from first to score while ISU's all-time doubles record holder posted just the third triple of her career to make it 9-4 Omaha.

On Deck
Iowa State takes its final road trip of 2015 this weekend when the Cyclones head to Waco, Texas for a series against Big 12 foe Baylor. The three-game set starts Friday at 6:30 p.m., with games on Saturday and Sunday at noon.

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Nychole Antillon

Cathlin Bingham

Aly Cappaert

Aly Cappaert

Kelsey McFarland

Maddie Reese

Maddie Reese

Stacy Roggentien

Stacy Roggentien

Lexi Slater

Lexi Slater

Jorden Spendlove

Jorden Spendlove

Brianna Weilbacher

Hayley Womack

Sponsors

Iowa State University Athletics