Completed Event: Softball versus Iowa on April 21, 2026 , Loss , 2, to, 7
Final
Softball
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Iowa
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Iowa State University Athletics
2008 In Review: Most Wins Since 1989
06.12.2008 | Softball
AMES, Iowa - The Iowa State softball team finished the 2008 season 29-29, securing the first .500 season since 1995 and the most wins since 1989. ISU won its Big 12 Championship opening round game against Baylor before falling 1-0 to national runner-up Texas A&M in the second round. With 13-of-16 players returning next season, ISU looks to the future with optimism while looking at 2008 as another step forward.
Cyclone Notebook
- Iowa State finished the season 29-29, recording its most wins since 1989 and increasing its win total for the third season in a row, all of which have come under the guidance of head coach Stacy Gemeinhardt-Cesler.
- The Cyclones finished with a .500 record for the first time since 1995 (22-21-1).
- Gemeinhardt-Cesler missed the final 36 games of the season after being ordered to bed rest while awaiting the arrival of her twins.
- The Cyclones opened the season 11-1, marking the best start in school history. The hot start topped the 10-2 start that the 1975 squad posted.
- The Cyclones homered a school-record 38 time this season, surpassing the previous record of 27 in 2002. Iowa State had 12 homers in Big 12 games after going homerless in league play in 2007.
- The Cyclones defeated Baylor in the opening round of the Big 12 tournament. The 10 inning win was ISU's first in the tournament since 2002 and also marked the first time ever that the nine seed had won a game at the Big 12 tournament.
- Rachel Zabriskie earned all-tournament honors at the Big 12 Championships, becoming just the second player in school history to earn the honor (Raven Coberg, 1996).
- Iowa State won at Baylor for the first time since 2002, defeating the Lady Bears 2-1 on a fourth-inning homer by Sydni Jones in the second conference game of the season.
- The Cyclones also picked up their first wins in school history over Wisconsin-Green Bay, Central Arkansas, Louisiana-Monroe, Chattanooga, Lipscomb and Illinois-Chicago.
- ISU won its season opener against Wisconsin-Green Bay (8-0) for the first time since 2002. Zabriskie tossed a no-hitter in her first collegiate start for the Cyclones.
- The Cyclones scored 11 runs in the sixth inning of a 13-4 win over Nebraska on April 15. The 11 runs is the second most in a single inning since 1988 while the 13 runs is the second most by a Cyclone squad since hanging 14 on Texas A&M in 2006. By run ruling the Huskers, ISU snapped Nebraska's streak of 139 straight Big 12 games without being run ruled, which was the longest active streak in the league.
- Three players played in every game for the Cyclones and two started each game. Courtney Wray played in all 58 games, starting 57, while Sydni Jones and Kelsey Kidwell started all 58 games.
- The Cyclones played 23 games against teams that advanced the the NCAA Championships, including nine against teams that advanced to Super Regional play. ISU went 5-18 against the teams.
- ISU improved greatly in 2008, hitting .295 with runners in scoring position after hitting just .227 a year ago in the same situation.
- For the first time since 1995, ISU had two pitchers with a better than .500 winning percentage. Zabriskie (15-14) and Carlin (10-9) finished above .500 for ISU on the year. It was the first time since 1989 that two pitchers were above .500 and each had 10 or more wins.
- Wray had 61 hits this season, which is the third-best single season in school history and was the ninth most hits in the Big 12. Her 32 runs scored is also the third most in ISU's single-season record books. Wray's .345 batting average ranks ninth, surpassing Jenny Condon's .343 average in 1989.
- Wray finished 14th in the Big 12 in batting average. She also tied for the league lead with four triples.
- Kelsey Kidwell narrowly missed joining the 60-hit club, finishing the season with 58 hits, which is the sixth most in the single-season records.
- Kidwell tied for first on the single-season charts with 18 stolen bases. The sophomore from Solon, Iowa has 22 career stolen bases, which leaves her tied for eighth all-time at ISU, just 26 shy of the school record.
- Rachel Zabriskie became the school's all-time freshman leader with 146 strikeouts on the season, surpassing interim assistant Alyssa Ransom-Tjaden's mark of 136, which was set in 2004. She finished seventh on the overall single-season charts.
- Zabriskie finished 14th in the Big 12 with a 2.62 ERA.
- Sydni Jones led ISU with a .319 batting average in league play, well above her .245 average overall. Jones' nine homers ties for fifth among single-season leaders.
- Alex Johnson is just the ninth player in school history to drive in 30 runs in a season. Johnson, who has 35 on the season, is climbing the career charts with 63 RBI, which is tied for 10th all-time.
- ISU had four players with 20+ RBI for the first time since the inception of the Big 12 (1996).
- Ariel Coburn became just the fourth player in school history to hit 10 homers in a single-season, despite missing nine games with a broken wrist. Coburn was second on the team with 28 runs, which ties her for seventh on the single-season charts.
- Coburn's .634 slugging percentage is the third best single-season percentage in school history while Wray's .542 percentage ties for the ninth best. Coburn's slugging percentage ranked eighth in the Big 12.
- Freshman Carrie Monroe was hit by a pitch a team-high eight times, the third most by any player in single-season history. It also ties her for eighth on the career lists.
- Five players had hitting streaks of at least eight games on the season. Amanda Bradberry, Kelsey Kidwell and Alex Johnson hit safely in eight straight games while Courtney Wray and Ariel Coburn had streaks of nine games. Sydni Jones enters next year riding a three-game hitting streak.
- Iowa State was the youngest team in the Big 12 with 12-of-its-16 players being freshmen or sophomores. Missouri was the second youngest with 14-of-20 players with under two years of collegiate experience.
- The Cyclones were on the road for the first 31 games of the 58-game schedule.
Record-Setting Offensive Production
- The 2008 Iowa State softball team has seen record-setting offensive production. The Cyclones set new school records for runs (215), home runs (38) and RBI (187). Their 393 hits is the second-most in school history behind only the 429 ISU had in 1988. The 67 stolen bases is also second all-time with 70 being the record set in 2000.
First To 15 In Two Decades
- Rachel Zabriskie became the first pitcher in 20 years to reach 15 wins in a season. In fact, the freshman, who owns the ISU single-season rookie mark, hadn't even been born when Jane Peterson won 16 games in 1988.
Excelling In The Classroom
- Six Iowa State players earned academic all-Big 12 honors this spring. The first-team honorees were Amanda Bradberry, Charissa Carlin, Michelle Dettmer, Kelsey Kidwell and Courtney Wray. Senior Amie Ford captured second-team accolades.
Players Mentioned
IF
/ SoftballIF
/ Softball
RHP
/ SoftballRHP
/ SoftballIF
/ SoftballIF
/ Softball
OF
/ SoftballOF
/ Softball
RHP
/ SoftballRHP
/ Softball
C/IF
/ SoftballIF/C
/ Softball
IF
/ Softball
OF
/ SoftballOF
/ Softball
IF
/ Softball
RHP
/ Softball
IF
/ SoftballUT
/ Softball
RHP
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