EDWARDSVILLE – The chilled wind whipping through Tom Pile Field took a toll on Jacob St. Peters.

“My ears were cold on the mound,” he conceded.

But Edwardsville, like the elements, could muster little else to faze St. Peters, who struck out 10 in a complete-game effort to lead the Alton Redbirds to a 4-1 Southwestern Conference baseball victory over the Tigers on Tuesday.

“I was feeling good out on the mound,” said St. Peters, who came in with a 4.94 ERA from 6 2/3 innings. “All my stuff was working for me. I was only supposed to throw two innings and I ended up throwing the whole game. It’s just ironic.”

Alton, which had won just three of 15 games vs. the Tigers over the previous five seasons, improves to 7-3 and 2-1 in the SWC. Edwardsville is 10-3 and 2-1 in the conference.

“I’ll end up probably talking about our team a lot, but their pitcher was right around the plate all day and really, when he wanted to locate his pitches, he did,” Tigers coach Tim Funkhouser said of St. Peters. “We didn’t do a good job of having at-bats, but he made it tough on us. I remember seeing him last season in the postseason and he showed some gumption there. And he did so today.”

The Redbirds made their four runs on just two hits. Alton did not get a ball out of the infield until Sam Ballard grounded a single to right field to lead off the fifth inning.

“We got just enough,” Alton coach Todd Haug said. “You make the most of what you have.”

Edwardsville senior Jake Garella deserved a better fate from his start. The right-hander went five innings, allowing three runs (one earned) on two hits and two walks while striking out 10. Andrew Yancik finished and fanned four more Redbirds.

But the Tigers committed four errors and squandered their best shot at getting to St. Peters by twice taking strike three on a 3-2 count after putting runners on second and third with one out while facing a 1-0 deficit in the fourth inning.

“I think that’s what shut the door,” St. Peters said. “We were all up after that. They went down.”

“Just bad at-bats,” Funkhouser said. “Their pitcher executed, so you credit him. But we look on our end a lot on what we need to do and we obviously need to get better at playing the game. … Disappointing at-bats, kind of the theme for us and not making plays.”

Alton took a 1-0 lead in the second inning when Aaron Bonnell singled on a slow roller to the right side after Tigers miscommunication left no one covering first base. Courtesy runner Matt McDonald stole second and scored on a two-out throwing error.

The Redbirds made it 3-0 with two runs in the fifth, set up by Ryan Boyd’s two-strike sacrifice bunt moved runners to second and third ahead of Derrick Allen’s RBI fielder’s choice, and tacked on another run in the sixth on Jacob Kanallakan’s leadoff walk, pinch runner McDonald’s 14th stolen base and two wild pitches.

The Tigers got a run in the sixth inning on Collin Clayton’s double, Garella’s single and Joel Quirin’s sacrifice fly. That spoiled St. Peters’ shutout bid and extended Edwardsville’s string of games without being shutout to 65 in a row. But the positives were few for the Tigers.

“Right now, we’re not playing the game that well,” Funkhouser said. “We don’t think the game that well, we don’t execute, obviously, the game that well and we’re not making adjustments within the game. We’re not going to be that good when we do that.”

St. Peters’s record goes to 2-0, thanks to a slider the Tigers were unable to solve. “It was just on,” St. Peters said of his out-pitch. “Couldn’t have been any better.”

The Redbirds pitcher was certainly the star, but Haug called the victory a “team effort. We had three really good days to prepare. … We felt like we had a very, very good game plan going into this ballgame. Credit to (St. Peters) and credit to the defense behind him. Credit to the game plan, credit to the Redbirds.”

It was the 10th straight road game for the Redbirds, who have yet to try out their new field behind Alton High. Five more games are on the schedule before Collinsville comes to AHS next Tuesday. Still, Haug said the run of road dates – home games were rained out twice last week — has not been a burden for his team.

“I think everybody’s really ready to play at home,” Haug said. “But then again, we&rs