Gorloks Pound Out Season High 22 Hits En Route to World Series Berth

For the fourth time in program history and first time since 2015, the Webster University baseball team is headed to the NCAA Division III World Series as the Gorloks pounded out a season-high 22 hits and scored 17 runs in posting a 17-5 win over top-ranked Concordia-Chicago to sweep the NCAA Midwest Super Regional best-of-three series here Saturday afternoon at CUC Cougar Field.

With the victory, Webster improves to 37-11 and heads to next week's Division III World Series in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, riding a three-game win streak, that includes taking two games in the Super Regional against the No. 1 ranked Cougars, who were looking to advance to the World Series for the third consecutive season. CUC finishes the season with a 42-10 record. 

In Saturday's win over the Cougars, Webster scored runs in all but the ninth inning, including plating six runs in the seventh inning to turn a 10-5 contest into a 16-5 runaway. The two teams each scored a run in the eighth to complete the game's scoring. 

Saturday's game featured a combined 33 hits, 23 runs, eight extra-base hits, six hit batters, five walks and a combined 20 runners left on base. The Gorloks had five of those eight extra-base hits and were hit by four pitches and drew five walks from a combined seven CUC pitchers. 

The 22 hits by Webster were the most in a game since recording 23 hits last season against Blackburn, while the 17 runs were the most runs ever scored in an NCAA Tournament by the Gorloks as the previous high was 14 runs in a 14-13 win over Augustana (Ill.) in the 2008 Central Regional Tournament in Moline, Ill.

While Webster drew five walks, the Gorloks pitchers did not walk a batter in the game and also recorded nine strikeouts, including freshman Brendan May (St. Louis, Mo./St. John Vianney) pitching 6.1 innings in relief of junior starter Dakota Borman (Freeport, Ill./Highland CC), who faced just four batters before being lifted after allowing a 2-run homer to Brody Mariotti. 

In his 6.1 innings of work, May scattered eight hits and allowed three runs, while matching a career high with six strikeouts and did not issue a walk in his 87 pitch outing. Senior Adrian Santiago (Chicago, Ill./Oakton CC) worked around a hit and struck out two in the eighth and junior Matt Mulhearn (Chicago Heights, Ill./Marian Catholic), who was scheduled to throw Saturday's if necessary game had CUC won, allowed one hit, but retired the other three batters he faced to seal WU's trip to Cedar Rapids and its Super Regional title. 

Junior All-American first baseman Kyler Kent (Pottsboro, Texas) paced the Gorloks offense with a 4-for-6 effort with four runs scored and 4 RBI against the Cougars to extend his hit streak to a career-best 11 games, while sophomore third baseman Ben Swords (Freeport, Ill./Freeport) went 3-for-5 with a career-high tying five runs scored and junior left fielder A.J. Smith (DuQuoin,Ill./DuQuoin) also had three hits in the win. The other Gorloks with three hits were junior catcher Joe Swanson (Park Ridge, Ill./Maine West) and sophomore shortstop Matt Staker (El Cajon, Calif./Saint Augustine). In fact, every Gorlok starter had at least one hit and eight of the nine starters scored at least a run. 

CUC got two hits apiece from Jose Mercado, Bryan Vanduser, Justin Rodriguez, and Mariotti. 

Zach Litke (1-3) took the loss on the mound for CUC as he replaced starter Alex Carinigan in the fourth innings and allowed three hits and two runs while walking one and fanning none. Carinigan had allowed six hits and four runs over the first three innings while striking out three and walking one.

Webster will join UMass-Boston, Babson, Chapman (Calif.), Birmingham-Southern, Heidelberg, Johns Hopkins, and Washington and Jefferson in Cedar Rapids for this year's Division III World Series.

The Division III College World Series has two four-team, double-elimination brackets with the winners of each side meeting for a three-game series to determine the 2019 D-III National Champion. The NCAA will finalize first round match-ups in the World Series either Saturday night or Sunday morning. The D-III World Series will run from May 31-June 5 at Perfect Game Field at Veteran's Memorial Stadium, which is the home field of the Cedar Rapids Kernels of the Class A Midwest League. 

STORY COURTESY OF WEBSTER UNIVERSITY SPORTS INFORMATION