(Moline, Ill.) – The Webster Gorloks fell a run short of advancing to the NCAA III Baseball Championships with a 4-3 loss to the Linfield (Ore.) Wildcats in the Central Region Championship game on Saturday afternoon at Swanson Stadium in Moline, Ill.

    WU (31-15) got single runs in the third and fifth frames and seven shutout innings from starter Brett Mueller to take a 2-0 lead into the home half of the eighth. The Wildcats (35-11) took advantage of back-to-back walks and a single and an error off of Eric McKinley to take a 3-2 advantage heading into the ninth inning.

    In the ninth the Gorloks got their leadoff man on base when Craig Schaefer was hit by a pitch and then Wes Hilliard sacrificed the runner over to second. After a walk to John Combs and a pitching change Nathan Shelton lined a double down the left field line to tie the game and put the go ahead run at third with one out. After an intentional pass to Alex Raetzloff, Grant Bellak came off the bench and hit a grounder deep in the hole between third and short but the shortstop cut the ball off and started a 643 double play to end the inning.

    After a 123 bottom of the ninth from Greg Bade, Webster tried to mount a two out rally in the 10th but Dakota Huey was caught stealing at second to end the inning. Linfield loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the frame but the Gorloks still had a chance to get out of the inning but a grounder to short was mishandled and the winning run scored.

    WU out hit the Wildcats by a 9-4 margin but the defense committed four errors in the contest. Bade was the tough luck loser allowing a run without giving up a hit in 2.2 innings of work.

    Mueller, Raetzloff, Huey and Kyle Starnes were all voted to the All-Central Region Tournament squad. Mueller finished the tournament pitching in four games going 1-0 with two saves while tossing 18 consecutive scoreless innings and allowed only 11 hits and five walks in the tournament.

    Webster finished the season matching its school record win total of 31 which was set by last year’s squad.