Iowa State Earns Pair of 11-3 Wins Over Green Bay

AMES, Iowa – The Iowa State softball team moved back above .500 Wednesday at the Cyclone Sports Complex with a pair of 11-3, 6-inning wins over Green Bay. The duo of victories move ISU to 25-23 on the season, while Green Bay is now 16-24 on the year.

The bats were alive for Iowa State, as the Cyclones combined to get their 22 runs on 31 hits. ISU recorded 13 extra base hits on the day, including five home runs. Aly Cappaert got a homer in each game, while Kelsey McFarland hit her third grand slam of the season.

Game One: Iowa State 11 Green Bay 3 (6 innings)
The Cyclones got in a hole two pitches into the game as Hailey Mohrfeld hammers the second pitch of the game off Stacy Roggentien over the wall to get the Phoenix ahead 1-0. Iowa State's offense responded in style with Aly Cappaert and Lexi Slater recording RBIs to get the Cyclones ahead 2-1. Singles by Maddie Reese and Jorden Spendlove set the stage for Kelsey McFarland, who launched her third home run of the season, all grand slams, over the wall in right-center to get ISU ahead 6-1.

Green Bay worked to get back in the game in the top of the fourth as Mohrfeld drove in a 2-RBI single to reduce the Iowa State lead to 6-3. The Cyclone offense finally got back on the board in the bottom of the fifth via an RBI double by Cathlin Bingham, which score Nychole Antillon. The next batter, Cappaert recorded her seventh home run of the season to center to get the score to 9-1. Green Bay switched to Alexis LeCalsey in the circle, but that did not help as Slater greeted her first offering and sent it over the wall in left-center for back-to-back home runs and a 10-3 lead.

McFarland led off the bottom of the sixth with a single and got into scoring position via a wild pitch. Antillon sent a hard grounder to third, but it took a bad hop over Phoenix third baseman Miranda Spangberg, allowing McFarland to come around and score and give ISU the 11-3 win.

Game Two: Iowa State 11 Green Bay 3 (6 innings)
Once again, Green Bay got on the board first as Hailey Mohrfeld led off the game with an infield single, and was worked around to third by her teammates. Allie Taylor stepped up with the two-out hit, firing a hard liner right at Nychole Antillon, the Cyclone third baseman could not react to it quickly enough, allowing Mohrfeld to score and make it 1-0 Phoenix.

The Cyclones responded. Brittany Gomez demonstrated her talents in the first, leading off with a base hit up the middle, and stealing second and third on consecutive pitches during Cathlin Bingham's at-bat. Gomez was eventually brought home on a Lexi Slater sacrifice fly to tie it up at 1-1.

The Iowa State offense made their move in the bottom of the second. Kelsey McFarland got a one-out triple, the first three-bagger of her career, and was brought home the next pitch by Antillon to move ISU ahead 2-1. The first pitch of Sammie Hildreth's at-bat was a home run to center, her second of the season to move the Cyclones ahead 4-1.

Green Bay pulled Alexis LeCalsey from the circle for Briana Cavin, but things did not go much better for her as Gomez got a single and stole her third base of the game, Bingham got an RBI-double and then Aly Cappaert cleared the bases with her eighth homer of the season, this one also to center, to get ISU ahead 7-1.

The Phoenix were able to get back on the board in the top of the fourth as Kelli Hutchinson hit one up the middle for an RBI-single. That saw the end of ISU starter Brianna Weilbacher's day as Katie Johnson came in relief. However, the Phoenix used some good small ball to get another run across and make it 7-3 Cyclones.

Iowa State was able to put the game out of sight in the bottom of the fourth. Slater, ISU's record holder for career doubles, ended a 23-game doubleless drought with a two-bagger to left. After a Maddie Reese walk, Jorden Spendlove blooped one to right-center, which held up long enough to bring home both Slater and Reese and move ISU ahead 9-3. Antillon added her second RBI of the day a few batters later with an RBI-single up the middle which scored Spendlove's pinch runner, Hayley Womack, to make it 10-3 Cyclones.

ISU finished it off in the sixth. Maddie Reese led off with a double to right-center and advanced to third on a Katie Rossman wild pitch. It would not have made a difference as Spendlove fired a double of her own to the same spot in right-center to score Reese and end the game 11-3 in the Cyclones' favor.

Gomez Record Watch
Brittany Gomez continues to move in on a variety of Iowa State single-season and career records. Gomez went 4-for-8 on the day at the plate, upping her season hits total to 72 and her career hits total to 213. Pursuing records both belonging to Jenny Condon, Gomez is now three from tying, and four from breaking the career hits record of 216, and five from tying, six from breaking, the single-season hits record of 77.

Her 4-for-8 day at the plate upped her batting average to .431 on the season, now just four points away from the single-season record of .435 of Mary Jo Collins in 1978. Gomez tied a season-high with three stolen bases in the second game against the Phoenix, moving her to 29 steals on the season, two from tying and three from breaking her single-season record of 31 set in 2013.

On Deck
Iowa State is back at home this weekend for a home series against Texas Tech. Action starts Friday with a 4 p.m. game, and Saturday and Sunday games will start at noon.

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Players Mentioned

Nychole Antillon

Cathlin Bingham

Aly Cappaert

Brittany Gomez

Sammie Hildreth

Katie Johnson

Kelsey McFarland

Maddie Reese

Stacy Roggentien

Lexi Slater

Jorden Spendlove

Brianna Weilbacher

Hayley Womack

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