ST. LOUIS — It took a while for both teams to settle down. This was Busch Stadium, the home of the St. Louis Cardinals, and as Illini shortstop Thomas Lindauer said, a place where most players can only dream to one day play in front of 50,000 people. 

There weren’t that many people in attendance on Saturday to watch Illinois defeat Missouri 6-2 for its first win in the Battle at Busch, as fans only filled the first few rows.

But even after the game ended, the Illini were out in front of the dugout snapping photos on their phones, some still wide-eyed in awe of the stadium.

The Illini (18-7, 1-2 Big Ten) ended a six-game losing streak to Missouri (9-16, 2-7 SEC), and had not won in Busch since the series began in 2010. Missouri had never lost at Busch Stadium before Tuesday.

Illinois needed six different pitchers, including one who had barely pitched in two years and one who just pitched two days ago.

Illini first baseman David Kerian said it was difficult for hitters to see the ball out of pitchers’ hands at first because of the patch of grass just beyond the center-field fence. 

But eventually the Illini offense settled in and exploded for a three-run sixth inning. Illinois collected 12 hits and six runs, and the 3-4-5 hitters went 6-12 with two RBIs and scored five runs. 

Kerian doubled home the eventual game-winning runs with a two-run triple in the sixth. He went two-for-four, and was likely robbed of another hit after grounding out to shortstop. After he was called out he turned around and took off his helmet in shock, before defiantly slapping hands with his first base coach. 

“This game, being a rivalry now, I have a lot of emotion in this game,” said Kerian who extended his career-high hitting streak to 11 games.

Kerian’s performance combined with five Tigers errors that led to two unearned Illinois runs allowed the Illini to dominate the game and insert some bench players late. Missouri has committed 37 errors on the season, so this was nothing new for them. 

Sophomore Rob McDonnell made his first start of the season, but lasted just an inning before being pulled. McDonnell was experiencing some arm pain after the first, and head coach Dan Hartleb wanted to err on the side of caution. He walked a batter and hit a batter but didn’t allow a run in his inning of work. 

It was his first start since the beginning of 2012, when he came into the year as the No. 2 starter but was shut down due to arm soreness. He had Tommy John surgery in 2010 that forced him to redshirt in 2011. 

After pulling McDonnell, Illinois called on freshman Ryan Castellanos, who didn’t even get a chance to warm up in the bullpen. He threw about five warm-up tosses in the bullpen, without a chance to even get on the mound before being thrown into the game in the second. 

He ended up with the longest outing on the day for any Illinois pitcher, lasting three innings while allowing one run on three hits. 

Kevin Duchene was the winning pitcher for Illinois. Duchene threw six innings this past Saturday. He struggled during that game, and Hartleb wanted to give him a chance to be more effective. He responded, pitching a scoreless inning.

Some players in the Illinois dugout held their fingers to the sky as the ball was caught for the final out and jumped the fence to celebrate the victory. They knew exactly how long it had been since they’d beat Missouri. 

“We’re absolutely aware of something like that,” Lindauer said. “We talked about it yesterday after practice and today before the game. It’s one of those things where you kind of feel like that team has got your number, and you don’t want to keep giving them games. I think we came out ready to go today, and I think it was nice to get a nice win against those guys.”

Jamal can be reached at [email protected] and @jamalcollier.