SLIAC Baseball: A Golden Decade for the Gorloks
We wrap up our look at the history of SLIAC spring sports with this week's sport, baseball. We will examine sport over its 30 years of SLIAC history, and wrap up the week with a send-off for SLIAC seniors. Our final decade we will look at is the 2010s, a decade when the Webster University baseball program went to achieve new heights.
If the 2000s ended with Webster University showing they were a program to be watched, in the 2010s they made the statement that all eyes were on them. The Gorloks spent the entire decade of the '10s filling up their trophy case, taking home at least a share of the regular-season title each year in the decade, and from 2007-2018, won 12 straight titles outright. In addition, they won seven SLIAC tournament championships including five straight from 2010-2014. But it was not just the conference competition the Gorloks were succeeding against. In their 9 national tournament trips during the '10s, the Gorloks won multiple games at nationals on six occasions including making NCAA Division III World Series appearances in 2012, 2013, 2015, and 2019.
The Gorloks list of standout players from the '10s includes 19 All-Americans that included Taylor Stoulp and Kyle Uhrich and was headlined by the 2017 NCAA Division III Pitcher of the Year, Josh Fleming. Fleming would go on to become just the second SLIAC player chosen in the MLB draft; when he was picked in the 5th round by the Tampa Bay Rays in 2017.
Despite their dominance in the decade, the Gorloks were not without their challengers. A dominant player the previous decade, Stefan Neece, concluded his Panther career as an All-American in 2010. Tim Osborne would also earn the honor in 2014. After finishing as the runner-up in the SLIAC Tournament five times in program history, Greenville University finally broke through in 2015. The Panthers added a second title in 2017 after a memorable post-season performance by Jesse Getz. Catcher Travis Ralls was the heart of the two Panthers' titles and would finish his career as the 2017 SLIAC Player of the Year and be named All-American the same year.
Westminster College also took their shots, advancing to three consecutive SLIAC Championship games; winning the 2016 title behind the duo of Deion Hughes and Collin Brinker. Hughes, who played for the Blue Jays from 2013-16, would finish his career as the program's all-time leader in wins, earned-run average, and strikeouts; earning All-America honors in 2014 and 2016.
In 2019, another team rose up to claim a piece of the SLIAC regular-season title; Spalding University. They were the first program other than Webster to do so since 2006. The Golden Eagles had finished no lower than 4th in the SLIAC standings since arriving to the league in 2009, finishing in second place five times during that span. Tyler Brown became the first Golden Eagle to take home a major conference award, being named the SLIAC Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year in 2011. He would be joined on that list by future Golden Eagles Wes Phan (2013 Newcomer of the Year), Derek Ferch (2014 Player of the Year), Ryan Mosby (2015 Pitcher of the Year), All-American Garrett Wilson (2018 Player of the Year), four-time All-American Jimi Keating (2018 Pitcher of the Year), and Eric Meyer (2019 Player of the Year). The program's success was not just on the field though as Matt Harper, Jimi Keating, and Kyle Olliges were all also selected CoSIDA Academic All-Americans.
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