WEBSTER GROVES - Since the beginning of the 2015 season, Webster University Baseball has won three consecutive St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference regular season titles, posted a 124-52 overall record and a 74-14 mark in SLIAC games, has advanced to the NCAA Tournament twice and made an appearance in the Division III World Series in 2015, but they have yet to win an SLIAC Tournament title in that span, which something they hope they can accomplish this weekend as the 2018 SLIAC Baseball Tournament begins on Thursday on the campus of Greenville University.  

The Gorloks, who enter the postseason having won 19 consecutive games and are sporting a 33-7 overall record, are the top overall seed and the No. 1 seed from the West Division, open the 2018 SLIAC Tournament on Thursday, May 10 at 5 p.m. at Robert E. Smith Field in Greenville, Ill., against East Division No. 2 seed and tournament host Greenville (20-18 overall, 13-9 SLIAC). The Panthers are seeking to win its second consecutive SLIAC Tournament title and third in the last four seasons. 

Webster's current 19 game win streak is tied for the longest active win streak among all NCAA schools as Division III's Pfeiffer has also won 19 consecutive games. The longest active win streak in Division II is 15 games held by Point Loma, while Rhode Island and Purdue are tied for the longest active win streak in Division I as those two schools have won 11 straight games. 

For the second consecutive season, the SLIAC Tournament will feature the exact same teams as all four of the teams that qualified this season also played in last year's tournament that was won by Greenville, who defeated Westminster, 8-6, in last year's title game to claim its third all-time SLIAC title and the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Baseball Tournament. 

The only difference between this season's tournament field and last season's are the seeds in the East Division as Greenville was the No. 1 seed and Spalding was the No. 2 seed in 2017, but this season, the seeds are reversed as Spalding is the No. 1 seed from the East and Greenville earned the No. 2 seed from the East Division. 

Webster enters the double-elimination tournament as the favorite to win its first SLIAC Tournament since 2014 and its ninth overall tournament title in program history as the Gorloks, who are ranked seventh and 20th respectively in this week's latest ABCA/Collegiate Baseball and D3Baseball.com/NCBWA polls. went 20-2 in league play with their only losses coming at home to Westminster, 6-4 in 12 innings on March 30 and then suffering a 2-1 loss at Eureka on April 8. Since that loss to Eureka, Webster has reeled off 19 consecutive victories, including winning its final 16 league games in a row. During the regular season, Webster took both ends of a doubleheader against Greenville at SIU-Edwardsville as Webster won the two games, 3-1 and 17-0. Webster claimed its 12th straight SLIAC regular season title this season and has won eight SLIAC Tournament championships, including winning five straight from 2010-14. Over the last three seasons, Webster has gone 1-2 in the tournament each season as they have won their opener, before losing the next two games in a row.

At last year's tournament, the Gorloks opened the event with a 3-1 win over Spalding, before falling 8-5 in a winner's bracket match-up against Westminster and then suffering a 17-15 loss to Greenville in an elimination game.  
 

Webster, who won 20 league games for the first time since the SLIAC went to divisional play in 2014, comes into the tournament second in the league in hitting with a .322 batting average as a team, but leads the league in ERA with a 3.21. In addition, Webster leads the league in fielding percentage at .971, which is 18th nationally in Division III.

Leading the way offensively for the Gorloks is sophomore first baseman Kyler Kent (Pottsboro, Texas/Pottsboro), who is hitting .425 and leads the team in hits (68), runs scored (38), doubles (17), home runs (6) and is tied for the team lead in RBI (35). Kent's 68 hits is 17th in Division III and he is seven hits shy of tying Tom Henke's single-season school record of 75 hits set in 2012. In addition to Kent, three other Gorloks are hitting over .320 on the season.

Freshman third baseman Ben Swords (Freeport, Ill./Freeport) is hitting .371 and has recorded 53 hits, scored 38 runs, hit 16 doubles, two triples and has 32 RBI, while senior leftfielder Mike Wick (Bartlett, Ill./Bartlett) is hitting .333 on the year and has had 42 hits, scored 34 runs, hit two triples, four doubles, three home runs and 27 RBI and junior second baseman Danny Strohm (St. Louis, Mo./Greenville University) is hitting .321 with 35 hits, 21 runs scored, seven doubles and is tied with Kent in RBI with 35. 

In addition to those four hitters, two other Gorloks are hitting over .300 as senior centerfielder Conner Wardlaw (Arnold, Mo./Jefferson College) is hitting .311 and has had 41 hits, scored 27 runs, 18 RBI and is 12-for-18 in stolen bases and junior rightfielder Nate Tholl (Tinley Park, Ill./John A. Logan CC) is hitting .308 with 40 hits, 32 runs scored, has hit 11 doubles and is 8-for-9 on stolen bases. 

As a team, Webster has recorded 121 extra-base hits on the season as they have had hit 88 doubles, 11 triples and 22 home runs and is 104-for-134 in stolen bases. The 104 stolen bases is 13th in the latest Division III statistics. In addition, the Gorloks have walked 138 times and have scored 306 runs and is averaging 7.7 runs per game on the year. 

Meanwhile, on the mound, the Gorloks have three pitchers with ERA's under 2.30, including senior Austin Beccue (Red Bud, Ill./Gibault Catholic) leading the way with a 1.49 ERA. On the season, Beccue is 4-1 in eight appearances and four starts and in 36.1 innings of work, he has walked six and struck out 24. Sophomore Shane Donovan (Bartlett, Ill./Bartlett) has been Webster's workhorse out of the bullpen as he leads the league in appearances with 21 and has posted a 6-0 record and a 1.88 ERA. In those 21 appearances, Donovan has also recorded seven saves, which is tops in the league and is also tied for the most in a single season in school history. Donovan has thrown 48 innings and has struck out 22 and walked 10 and opposing hitters are hitting .201 against the righthander. 

Webster's No. 1 starter this season has been sophomore Matt Mulhearn (Chicago Heights, Ill./Marian Catholic) as he is 8-2 with a 2.32 ERA. On the season, Mulhearn has made 12 appearances and 11 starts and in 73.2 innings of work, he has struck out a team-best 67 and walked just 11 and is coming off a complete game effort in his last start against Spalding. In that win over the Golden Eagles, Mulhearn outdueled Spalding's All-American hurler Jimi Keating as Mulhearn threw all seven innings and allowed nine hits, two runs, walked none and struck out 10 in pitching his first complete game of the season. 

Along with Mulhearn, the other top starter this season for Webster has been senior C.J. Lee (Aurora, Ill./Waubonsie Valley), who is 6-2 with a 3.47 ERA. He, like Mulhearn, has made 12 appearances and 11 starts and in 62.1 innings of work, he has struck out 64 and walked 19. In SLIAC play, Lee was even more dominant as he went 6-0 with a 2.29 ERA and in seven appearances and six starts, he tossed 35.1 innings and recorded 41 strikeouts and walked 12. 

Webster, who is coached by Bill Kurich, has posted a 32-18 all-time record in the SLIAC Tournament, including winning the championship eight times (2005, 2006, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014) and was runner-up in 1999. 
 

Kurich is in his 12th season at the helm of the Gorloks baseball team and has posted a 389-153 record and was named the SLIAC Coach of the Year six times with the most recent honor coming in 2015 as he shared the honor with MacMurray's Justin Fuhler. 

In addition to Webster and Greenville, the other first round SLIAC Tournament game on Thursday will match West Diviison No. 2 seed Wesmtinster (20-13 overall, 15-7 SLIAC) meeting East Division No. 1 seed Spalding (30-10 overall, 16-6 SLIAC) at 2 p.m. Thursday's two winners will play each other on Friday, May 11 at 2 p.m., while the two losing teams from Thursday's games will meet on Friday, May 11 at 5 p.m.  
 

Greenville has won two of the last three SLIAC Baseball Tournament titles, while Westminster has won four titles and Webster has won a league-best eight championship trophies. In addition, MacMurray has won won four tournament titles, while Fontbonne and Greenville have each won two titles and former league member Maryville won the title in 1992.