By Sean Duncan

PEORIA, IL – As Rock Island Alleman junior standout Cody Sedlock was talking about his game-winning hit, his coach, Chris Lemon, interjected.

“Because of Cody’s pitching, he doesn’t get a lot of credit for his hitting,” Lemon said. “Cody is a really good hitter.”

Where ever you want to place the credit, stack it all in Sedlock’s corner. Not only did he throw a four-hitter, he drove in the winning run during Alleman’s 2-1 victory over Herscher in the Class 2A state semifinal Friday at O’Brien Field.

Sedlock’s all-around impressive performance sends Alleman (29-12) into the championship game for the first time in school history after five failed attempts, the last coming in 2005.

The 6-foot-3, 190-pounder shut down Herscher (33-8), especially when runners were on. He finished with six strikeouts and walked five to improve to 10-3 on the season. Sedlock’s fastball sat in the 84-87 mph range for the entire game, touching 88 on occasion. He also showed a 70-72 mph changeup that has the potential to be a plus pitch, and a 74-77 mph curveball. All three pitches he threw confidently and for strikes.

The only run Herscher scored was unearned, when Logan Orr scored on a two-out error by the shortstop in the second inning.

“He loves the big stage,” said Lemon. “The bigger the stage, the better he pitches. He has a sense of calm, you could see it in his eyes.”

As well as Sedlock pitched, the Pioneers couldn’t figure out Herscher senior left-hander Matt Webber, who had blanked the high-scoring offense through five innings. Webber (9-3) masterfully fed Alleman a three-pitch diet, heavy on curveballs and changeups. And the plan worked. He retired the side in order in three of the first four innings, and the only hit he issued at the time – a one-out triple by Dan Cutkomp – was quickly erased with a rare hidden-ball trick at third base.

 In the fourth and fifth innings, Webber struck out five of his total six. Alleman, which had scored just shy of 13 runs in its last three games, sprung to life in the sixth. The Pioneers put together three hits in the inning, starting with a squib infield single by Blake Newberg to lead off the inning.

Shortstop Connor Whan then delivered a one-out single, and third baseman John Tracey’s sacrifice fly to center field scored Newberg to tie the game. Then, with two outs, Sedlock ripped a curveball to right field to score Whan, giving Alleman a 2-1 lead.

“After they got the one run, I knew if I held them to one run our team would eventually score some runs,” said Sedlock. “I knew we’d come around.”

Said Herscher coach Eric Regez: “We didn’t have any hits with runners in scoring position. Give credit to (Sedlock). He made a lot of big pitches.”

Herscher, which won a state championship in 1999, will play Wesclin for third place at 3 p.m Saturday.