(Moline, Ill.) – The Webster Gorloks are headed to its first ever regional championship game in any sport with a 14-13 win over the Augustana Vikings on Friday night at Swanson Stadium in Moline, Ill. With the win tonight WU equaled the school record for wins in a season with its 31st matching last year’s squad.

    After a scoreless first frame the Gorloks (31-14) got on the board in the second inning scoring five times highlighted by back-to-back home runs from Kyle Starnes and John Combs. Starnes blast to left field was a three run shot and then Combs followed with shot to left center. Webster got its sixth run of the contest in the third when Combs drove home Dakota Huey, who had doubled to open the inning, with a single.

    The Vikings (34-12) cut the WU lead in half with three runs of its own in the fourth inning thanks to a pair of errors by the defense. The Gorloks answered right back though with three of its own in the bottom of the inning with three doubles and a single to stretch the lead back to six runs. Augustana battled back and got within 9-6 after scoring three more in the fifth, but Webster extended its lead to seven runs with a four run sixth inning and then made it 14-6 in the seventh with an Alex Raetzloff double scoring Nathan Shelton all the way from first with what turned out to be the winning run.

    The Vikings continued to battle back though getting two runs in the eighth on a two run homer from Mark Ramos and then scored five times in the ninth inning and had the tying run at third with two outs but Brett Mueller got a pop out to second base to end the game and pick up his second save of the day.

    Every starter had at least one hit for Webster as they pounded out 19 in the contest led by Raetzloff and Huey with three each. Six other players had two hits in the contest. Starnes drove in five runs and Craig Schaefer had three more RBIs in the win.

    Wes Hilliard came on in relief in the sixth and pitched three innings to pick up his sixth win of the season while Mueller pitched out of a first and third situation with no one out to earn the save.

    Webster will play the winner of the Linfield/Augustana contest for the Central Region Championship and a berth in the NCAA III Baseball Championships on Saturday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. at Swanson Stadium in Moline, Ill.