(Photo Courtesy of Iowa State Athletics)
AMES, Iowa – Fresh off its 4-0 start to the season at home, Iowa State’s softball team begins a five-week, 24-game road stretch Friday at the Troy Cox Classic hosted by New Mexico State.
The Cyclones will start the tournament Friday night by taking on hosts New Mexico State at 7 p.m. Central Time and then play Weber State immediately following the first game. It is a similar set up on Saturday as ISU again plays hosts NMSU at 7 p.m. CST and follow that up by taking on Northern Colorado. Iowa State will wrap up the tournament Sunday morning at 10 a.m. CST by playing Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. All games will be played at the NMSU Softball Complex.
Live stats for all games will be available here. Iowa State Assistant Director for Athletics Communications Patrick Tarbox will host a live blog during all five of the Cyclones’ games that can be accessed here.
Cyclone Headlines
After a 4-0 start at home to the 2014 season, the Iowa State softball team hits the road for the next five weekends, with 24 games until its next home contest. The Cyclones will be at the Troy Cox Classic in Las Cruces, N.M.
The Cyclones will plays hosts New Mexico State and Weber State on the first night, NMSU again and Northern Colorado on the second night and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi to close out the tournament Sunday morning.
ISU’s 4-0 start to the season marks the fifth time in school history the Cyclones have started a season with at least four straight wins. Iowa State also started with four wins in 1981, five in 2011, six in 1975 and the school record start of 7-0 came in 2009.
Designated player Aly Cappaert sits atop the Big 12 in batting average after hitting .700 in the first weekend of the season. She also leads the conference in on-base percentage (.769) and ranks tied for second in slugging percentage (1.000) and total hits (7).
Freshman catcher Rachel Hartman is one of eight players in the Big 12 to hit multiple home runs during the first weekend of the season.
Shortstop Lexi Slater is tied for the Big 12 lead with three doubles.
In the circle, freshman Katie Johnson threw all 28 innings for Iowa State last weekend in the absense of ISU’s other starter, Paris Imholz.
Johnson is the only pitcher in the Big 12 to have more than three wins (she has four to her name), is the only pitcher with four complete games to her name and leads the conference in innings pitched.
Johnson was also one of five Big 12 pitchers to record a shutout in the first weekend, when Johnson blanked South Dakota State on Feb. 8.
In ISU’s win over SDSU on Feb. 9, Johnson became the third freshman pitcher in school history to have at least 10 strikeouts in a game when she struck out 10 Jackrabbit batters.
