ISU ready for Big 12 softball play

The Iowa State softball team opens the Big-12 season this weekend at Texas Tech. The Cyclones closed out pre-conference action on Wednesday with a victory over Drake and at 9-8 on the season coach Ruth Crowe likes the progress.As expected the Cyclones have scored a lot of runs. Crowe says the says the Cyclones will get better as junior pitchers Jen Bice and Erica Martinez improve.Crowe says the early portion of the season has been a cram session as they open conference play in Texas against teams that have been playing a lot longer. She says it hurts the sport that they don’t have a mandatory start date, as the southern schools have already played 30 and 40 games.Crowe says the disparity is even more pronounced in the Big-12 where northern schools are in with several schools down south. She says the only other way to remedy that problem is for northern teams to travel south early in the season to play games. But, Crowe says it costs a ton of money to do that.