(St. Louis, Mo.) – The Webster Gorloks baseball squad defeated Wartburg College 15-9 then lost to Concordia-Chicago 14-6 on Sunday afternoon at GCS Ballpark in Sauget, Ill. With the win over Wartburg, WU notched its first win of the 2008 season.

    In the opener, the Gorloks (1-8) got a solid pitching performance from Brett Mueller going seven innings allowing one earned run on three hits with a pair of strikeouts and walks. WU’s bats came alive early in the game scoring five times in the first to overcome a three run first inning by the Knights (6-9) to take a lead it would not relinquish. Webster added five more runs in the second with the big blow coming off the bat of Craig Schaefer hitting a grand slam just out of reach of the right fielder to make it 10-3 after two innings. That was all the support Mueller needed holding Wartburg’s bats in check allowing only two hits in his final six innings of work. The Gorloks tacked on some insurance runs with three in the sixth and two more in the seventh to build a 15-4 advantage. Those insurance runs came in handy as the Knights tried to rally in the ninth with five runs to get within six.

    Webster rapped out 11 hits in the contest led by Schaefer and Kyle Starnes with three apiece. Schaefer finished the day with seven runs batted in and was a triple shy of the cycle. Starnes drove in three more and had a pair of doubles in the contest.

    In the nightcap against CUC (9-1), WU again fell behind early allowing four runs in the first two innings before the offense came alive in the home half of the second with three runs sparked by a two run homer to left field off the bat of Dakota Huey. The Gorloks took advantage of a Cougars error to get its third run on John Comb’s double to center field scoring Jared Bushor who had reached on the error. Concordia came back with a run in the third, but Webster responded with a run of its own in the bottom of the inning and had a chance to take the lead but Bushor flew out to center with the bases loaded to end the threat.

    The Gorloks had another opportunity again in the fourth to tie or take the lead but again left the bases full on a grounder to third to end the inning. WU would take the lead 6-5 on Andrew Fuiten’s two run shot down the right field line in the sixth but it was short lived as the Cougars answered with four runs in both the seventh and eighth innings to grab a 13-6 lead. Concordia tacked on another run in the ninth for the final tally.

    John DuHadway took the loss in relief allowing seven runs, all earned, on eight hits in five innings of work with five strikeouts and three walks to fall to 0-2 on the season. Dave Umfleet and Greg Steen combined for four of Webster’s seven hits in the loss.

    The Gorloks will be off until the 25th of March when they travel to Fontbonne to take on the Griffins at 7 p.m.