The Cyclone baseball players can hold their caps a little higher after notching an 8-3 win over intrastate rival Iowa on Wednesday in Iowa City.

Iowa State used five pitchers on the afternoon, with starter Shawn Sedlacek recording the victory. Darin Nelson, Brian Curtin, Jeremy Taylor and Steve Larkin helped in relief to combine for the nine-hitter.

ISU Coach Lyle Smith said the team played well considering the weather conditions and the toughness of the rivalry.

“It was a challenging day,” he said. “Our guys just performed a little better than theirs.”

ISU (10-15) got on the board first with two runs in the second inning, which Smith said gave his team a big confidence boost.

The run support also benefited Sedlacek. Pitching with the lead, he retired all but one batter in three innings of work.

“I felt like I did a good job,” Sedlacek said of getting the ball rolling. “And everybody kept it up.”

Five straight hits from Adam Scott, Brad Bjorklund, Aaron Runk, Jeff Duncan and Shawn Leimbek helped the Cyclones tally three more digits in the fifth to take a 5-0 lead.

The comfortable lead was in doubt when the Hawkeyes scored two runs in the bottom half of the frame with no outs. But with the bases loaded, Curtin sent three straight Iowa batters back to the dugout, including the last two by strikeouts to maintain a three-run Cyclone advantage.

“We made the plays,” Smith said. “It was a good team effort.”

The team effort spanned all facets of the game, including defense. Once again, ISU players could look at the scoreboard and find a goose egg in the error column.

“That’s the first thing I look at after the game,” Sedlacek said.

He said that the solid Cyclone defense has helped the pitchers out tremendously all season. “You’re always a lot more comfortable,” he said.

ISU also got a much-needed lift offensively from catcher Adam Scott, who entered the contest with a .175 batting average. He led the team with a 5-for-5 performance, with all of the hits singles. He had an RBI single in the seventh and also crossed the plate once.

“They couldn’t keep him off first base,” Smith said.

In all, ISU pounded out 15 hits. Runk extended his hitting streak to 15 games with a 2-for-4 day at the plate. Duncan, Bjorklund and Matt McDonough added two hits apiece for the Cyclones. Duncan also stole two bases, giving him a total of eight on the year.

Iowa fell to 9-12 on the season, as Steve Rasmussen took the loss for the Hawks.

“Hopefully the win will give us momentum,” Smith said. “But we still need to improve. There are little things we need to keep developing and working on.”

The Cyclones look to pick up more momentum and a few conference victories at Texas this weekend in a three-game series.

Sedlacek said the Longhorns should be a formidable opponent on the road, but one that the Cyclones can handle with the way the team has played in its first 25 games.

“It’s going along real well,” Sedlacek said. “We’ve always been coming to play.”