Gorloks Double Up on #2 Ranking
With the start of preseason practice for baseball less than a week away, Webster University opens the upcoming 2020 season ranked No. 2 in the Preseason D3Baseball.com/NCBWA Top 25 poll that was released Tuesday.
Webster, who was also ranked No. 2 in the Preseason ABCA/Collegiate Baseball poll that was released in mid-December, earned 544 points and three first place votes to sit 11 points behind preseason No. 1 and defending Division III National Champion Chapman, who earned 19 first place votes and 555 points and 50 points in front of No. 3 Trinity (Texas), who earned 494 points in the poll.
Last season, Webster posted a 37-13 overall record and advanced to the Division III World Series for the fourth time in school history and first time since the 2015 season. All four of Webster's World Series appearances have occurred since 2012.
Webster, who is one of only teams from the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference either ranked or receiving votes in the preseason poll as Spalding received nine votes in poll, welcomes back seven position starters, five of its top six pitchers and 27 lettermen from last year's squad that captured its 13th consecutive SLIAC regular season title, its 10th all-time SLIAC Tournament title and also captured both the Whitewater Regional and Concordia-Chicago Super Regional championships a season ago en route to advancing to the D-III World Series.
Among the key returners for the Gorloks in 2020 are returning All-Americans – junior third baseman Ben Swords (Freeport, Ill./Freeport) and senior pitcher Matt Mulhearn (Chicago Heights, Ill./Marian Catholic). In addition to the two returning All-Americans from last season, senior first baseman Kyler Kent (Pottsboro, Texas/Pottsboro) returns after being an All-American as a sophomore in 2018, as well as, senior pitcher Shane Donovan (Bartlett, Ill./Bartlett), who was also an All-American in 2018.
Swords was named an ABCA Third-Team All-American selection last season after recording a .358 batting average in 2019. On the season, Swords led the Gorloks in at-bats (187), hits (67), runs scored (53), doubles (20), RBI (52) and was tied for the team lead in home runs with seven and was also tied for the team lead in walks with 29. Additionally, Swords was 15-for-18 on stolen bases and led the Gorloks in multi-hit games (20) and multiple RBI games (13) and tied a single game school record with five runs scored in Webster's NCAA Super Regional clinching win against Concordia-Chicago. He finished last season ranked 12th nationally in Division III in doubles and was 27th nationally in both runs scored and RBI.
Mulhearn was named a Third-Team ABCA All-American and an Honorable Mention D3Baseball.com All-American last season after posting a 12-2 record and a 2.13 ERA. He led the Gorloks in wins (12), starts (15), complete games (5), ERA (2.13), innings pitched (105.2) and strikeouts (102) and was second in appearances with 19 and was one of just three pitchers in school history to record 100 or more strikeouts in a season. Mulhearn, who was named MVP of the NCAA Whitewater Regional, finished the 2019 season second nationally in wins with 12 and was also fifth nationally in strikeout-to-walk ratio (9.27) and ninth nationally in strikeouts (102). Mulhearn's 12 wins and 105.2 innings pitched were both single season school records, while is 15 starts were tied for the most in a single season.
The other returning position starters besides Swords and Kent for the Gorloks this season include junior shortstop Matt Staker (El Cajon, Calif./Saint Augustine), senior catcher Joe Swanson (Park Ridge, Ill./Maine West), senior centerfielder Aron Hopp (Lincoln, Ill./Lincoln College), senior rightfielder A.J. Smith (DuQuoin, Ill./DuQuoin) and junior leftfielder Adam Lovell (Lafayette, Ind./Saint Joseph's College). While the top returning pitchers along with Mulhearn and Donovan are junior Sean Beaver (San Diego, Calif./Scripps Ranch), sophomore Brendan May (St. Louis, Mo./ Vianney) and senior pitcher Dakota Borman (Freeport, Ill./Highland CC).
Behind Chapman, Webster and Trinity (Texas) in the preseason is defending national runner-up Birmingham-Southern (42-15), who earned 478 points to sit at No. 4 in the poll, while Heidelberg (35-15) rounds out the Top 5 of the Preseason D3Baseball.com/NCBWA poll.
Webster is scheduled to play 11 games this upcoming season against teams either ranked or receiving votes in the Preseason D3Baseball.com/NCBWA poll. Among the teams preseason ranked Webster is scheduled to face are No. 8 WashU, No. 18 Coe College, No. 19 Concordia-Chicago (two games), No. 20 Washington & Jefferson, along with facing five other schools that received votes in the preseason poll and those foes are Aurora (38 votes), Spalding (nine votes), Rhodes (five votes), Benedictine (Ill.) (four votes) and North Park (one vote).
The Gorloks, who begin preseason practice on Monday, January 27, will open the 2020 season in Memphis, Tenn., on Friday, Feb. 21 against Transylvania University at 10:30 a.m., while Webster's first home game of the 2020 season at GCS Credit Union Ballpark in Sauget, Ill., is scheduled for Friday, Feb. 28 against preseason No. 19 ranked Concordia-Chicago at 2 p.m. as part of the Webster/BSN Sports Classic.
