Illinois baseball drops Braggin’ Rights game to Mizzou, 5-2

The Illinois baseball team faced off against Missouri at Busch Stadium on Wednesday night. Illinois lost 5-2.

By J.J. Wilson

ST. LOUIS — Seven strikeouts and one earned run on three hits normally makes for a promising night for any starting pitcher — especially a freshman.

Illinois’ Cody Sedlock struck out five of the first 11 Missouri batters in his third career start Wednesday night, during which the righty recorded better numbers than in either of his first two starts. His seven strikeouts were a new career high.

With a few more pitches to contact — and one fewer error — he might have even gotten his first career win.

The Illini simply let small mistakes add up in their 5-2 loss to Missouri in the annual Braggin’ Rights game at Busch Stadium.

“When you get in a tight game and you don’t do things fundamentally well, you lose,” head coach Dan Hartleb said.

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Sedlock fell behind on pitch counts early, which led to a bases-loaded situation in the second inning that set up the Tigers for their first run of the game.

With no outs, Missouri’s Dillon Everett grounded to shortstop Adam Walton, who managed to turn the double play after bobbling the catch.

Quick fielding couldn’t stop one Tigers running from scoring, though, giving them a 1-0 lead before a strikeout ended the inning.

In the bottom of the frame, Ryan Nagle singled to center and Casey Fletcher’s groundout sent him to second.

Ryne Roper brought him in on a single into right field, tying the game at 1-1.

After recording a scoreless third innning, Sedlock began the fourth by throwing a low breaking ball that got away from catcher Jason Goldstein on strike three, giving the batter a chance to break for first.

Goldstein retrieved the wild pitch, turned and threw high to first base, thinking he had enough distance to catch the Tigers runner. But the ball flew over first baseman David Kerian’s head, and an error let the runner reach second.

“From that angle, it looked like I had a play, so I let it go and it just happened to sail,” Goldstein said.

From there, Missouri blew the game wide open, scoring twice in both the fourth and fifth innings to go up 5-1.

An uninspired seventh inning comeback scored another run for the Illini when Nagle crossed home on a Fletcher groundout, but 5-2 would be as close as they could bring it before Missouri snatched Braggin’ Rights.

“When I make a bad pitch, our defense picks me up,” said Sedlock, who was pulled after the fourth inning, “I should be able to pick them up, and I didn’t do a very good job of that.”

Five Illini relievers tossed an inning apiece on the mound against Missouri, recording four strikeouts and allowing just two runs on two hits.

A lackluster Illini offense overruled any improved pitching efforts, though, as it was only able to generate six hits in the game.

Tigers reliever Peter Fairbanks entered to start the second and closed the game with 84 pitches, striking out three and walking none.

“We didn’t do a very good job of getting deeper in the counts and forcing him to get his pitch total up,” Hartleb said. “But when we’re swinging early in the counts and not getting hard contact, that’s not a very good at-bat.”

With the loss, the Illini fall to 2-2 in midweek games and 22-15 on the season.

A quick turnaround into a home series against Indiana also gives Illinois little time to refocus on its fundamentals, but Hartleb doesn’t expect the loss to affect his team’s mentality.

“It’s one game during the season,” he said. “We made some mistakes, we’ll be better Friday.”

J.J. can be reached at [email protected] and @Wilsonable07.