The trick to winning a baseball game is to play well for all nine innings.

Yesterday, the Saint Louis University baseball team played perfect for eight innings, but they let one get out of control.

Errant play in the second inning of Wednesday’s game allowed the Arkansas Razorbacks (11-8) to get the six runs they needed to capture a 6-4 victory.

Without the second inning, the Billikens (9-7) win 4-0 and surrender just four hits on the day. Unfortunately, in the second there were three hits, two costly errors and a pair of walks.

The game started off well, with senior Torrey Lombardo battling through a pair of hits in the first to escape unscathed. Lombardo then left for the day with soreness in his surgically repaired right arm.

That brought senior hurler Brad Wehrfritz to the hill in the second. Wehrfritz struggled with his control and was unable to get the ball down into the strike zone throughout the inning. When Wehrfritz was in the zone, it was behind in the count and the Arkansas hitters were sitting on his fastball.

Combine Wehrfritrz’s control problems with a pair of booted groundballs by third baseman Ryan Murphy, and the Razorbacks have their offense for the day. Wehrfritz finished the day going two-thirds of an inning and giving up six runs, only one of which was earned.

That brought on senior Wes Jaillet to put out the fire. Jaillet did that and more. From the third inning on, the Razorbacks mustered just two hits and only put four runners on base.

“Two out of the last three games we have given up big-run innings that have hurt us. At South Florida we gave up five runs in the eighth and that cost us a game down there and here we didn’t pitch well in the second inning and the defense collapsed on us. Jaillet kept us around long enough, but we didn’t take advantage of our opportunities,” Billiken coach Bob Hughes said.

All the pieces fell back into place for Jaillet, who redeemed himself for a sub-par performance last weekend.

“Everything fell back into line today. I pretty much was in front of every hitter, whereas last weekend I was behind everyone. My off-speed and slider were on today, and I even threw two good change-ups. I had great control with my fastball and worked both sides of the plate really well,” Jaillet said.

“My slider was flat last weekend, and I was getting behind batters. When I got into the slump it was huge. My slider was gone; I couldn’t throw a changeup and I had no control with my fastball. But today kind of came out of nowhere. I didn’t even think I was going to pitch and ended up just having great control and a really good slider,” Jaillet said.

Jaillet wasn’t the only one who was pleased with his outing. Hughes was glad that Jaillet threw the ball like he is expected to.

“This was really the first time that Wes has come out and had a strong outing for us. That is why we used him out of the bullpen today. It seemed like things were working a little better for him, and his rhythm was definitely better today. He was getting ahead of the hitters and it made a world of difference for him. He threw the way that we have expected of him all year long,” Hughes said.

Other than Jaillet, the Billikens struggled to muster many positives from Wednesday’s game. The Bills have dropped seven of their last nine and are losing the close games that they were winning early on in the year.

Hughes doesn’t have an answer as to why the Bills are losing the close games that they were winning early on.

“Some of these guys have a pretty fragile mentality and until they get past that there is no telling which way it is going to go. When things were easy, those one and two-run ballgames weren’t a problem, but now that they’ve put a little doubt in their minds and questioned themselves there is a little panic. It is frustrating because they can do it. They showed they could do it early, and now they’re not doing it. I think that a lot of it comes back to believing that you can get the job done,” Hughes said.

The Billikens second conference series is this weekend as SLU hosts Louisville. The opening game of the series starts Friday at 7 p.m. Junior Zach Placzek will get his first start of the year.

Both weekend games start at 1 p.m. with junior Corey Lawson getting the ball on Saturday.