Illinois baseball sophomore catcher Lars Davis blasted his first home run of the season in the seventh inning of Tuesday night’s game against Western Michigan, but it wasn’t enough to carry the Illini (13-9, 2-2 Big Ten) past the Broncos as Western Michigan defeated the Illini, 7-2.

“We didn’t play at our best, but we didn’t play at our worst either,” Davis said. “We just didn’t play at our full potential (Tuesday). We needed to do some things that we didn’t in order to get the win and it showed in the end.”

The Broncos (12-11, 1-5 MAC) took advantage of an error in the top of the third inning by junior third baseman Mike Rohde to grab a 1-0 lead and extended their lead to 2-0 in their next at bat on an RBI single by the Broncos sophomore designated hitter Nathan Marquardt.

In his first start of the season, senior Jake Stewart threw four innings only giving up three hits and one earned run and struck out two before handing the ball over to freshman reliever Ben Reeser.

“Jake did a good job,” Illini head coach Dan Hartleb said. “If we make a couple plays that were routine he gives up no runs in his four innings pitched. I thought it was a very positive outing for him and something he can grow with.”

Western Michigan slightly broke the game open in the six, seventh eighth and ninth innings, scoring five times on eight hits to grab a 7-1 lead over the Illini.

The only other Illini run came in the bottom of the seventh, when Rohde drove in his 14th run of the season with a single into right field that scored junior designated hitter Ryan Snowden.

Broncos’ senior starting pitcher Brian French came into the night not having won a game all season, but by his performance you wouldn’t have known it. French baffled Illini hitters all night, tossing seven and two-thirds innings of two run baseball, and besides the home run by Davis, he only allowed two Illini to get to second base.

“I was disappointed in what we did offensively,” Hartleb said. “For the third game in a row I felt like we didn’t make any adjustments at the plate. I’m looking forward to tomorrow with a challenge to our guys to make an adjustment at the plate and grow as hitters.”

Illinois and Western Michigan will have a quick turnaround as the teams will cap off their two- game series today at 2:05 p.m. at Illinois Field. The Illini will send freshman pitcher Aaron Martin to the mound for his first start of his career.

“(Wednesday) will be a fresh day,” Davis said. “We’ll see a totally different pitcher and are going to try and come out hard, full of energy, and hopefully get the win.”