RIVER FOREST, Ill. - For the fourth time in program history and first time since 2015, the Webster University baseball team is headed to the NCAA Division III World Series as the Gorloks pounded out a season high 22 hits and scored 17 runs in posting a 17-5 win over top-ranked Concordia-Chicago to sweep the NCAA Midwest Super Regional best-of-three series here Saturday afternoon at CUC Cougar Field.

With the victory, Webster improves to 37-11 and heads to next week's Division III World Series in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, riding a three-game win streak, that includes taking two games in the Super Regional against the No. 1 ranked Cougars, who were looking to advance to the World Series for the third consecutive season. CUC finishes the season with a 42-10 record. 

"We're excited to get the chance to go back to the World Series, We played great. To play nine innings and not walk anyone with the wind blowing out at 20 miles per hour against a line-up like Concordia," Webster head coach Bill Kurich said in the post game press conference. "To have the opportunity to go to Whitewater and win that one and then come here (Concordia), we're pretty battle tested and I'm really proud of our guys."

In Saturday's win over the Cougars, Webster scored runs in all but the ninth inning, including plating six runs in the seventh inning to turn a 10-5 contest into a 16-5 runaway. The two teams each scored a run in the eighth to complete the scoring. 

Saturday's game featured a combined 33 hits, 23 runs, eight extra base hits, six hit batters, five walks and a combined 20 runners left on base. The Gorloks had five of those eight extra base hits and were hit by four pitches and drew five walks from a combined seven CUC pitchers. 

The 22 hits by Webster were the most in a game since recording 23 hits last season against Blackburn, while the 17 runs were the most runs ever scored in an NCAA Tournament by the Gorloks as the previous high was 14 runs in a 14-13 win over Augustana (Ill.) in the 2008 Central Regional Tournament in Moline, Ill.

While Webster drew five walks, the Gorloks pitchers did not walk a batter in the game and also recorded nine strikeouts, including freshman Brendan May (St. Louis, Mo./St. John Vianney) pitching 6.1 innings in relief of junior starter Dakota Borman (Freeport, Ill./Highland CC), who faced just four batters before being lifted after allowing a 2-run homer to Brody Mariotti. 

In his 6.1 innings of work, May scattered eight hits and allowed three runs, while matching a career high with six strikeouts and did not issue a walk in his 87 pitch outing. Senior Adrian Santiago (Chicago, Ill./Oakton CC) worked around a hit and struck out two in the eighth and junior Matt Mulhearn (Chicago Heights, Ill./Marian Catholic), who was scheduled to throw Saturday's if necessary game had CUC won, allowed one hit, but retired the other three batters he faced to seal WU's trip to Cedar Rapids and its Super Regional title. 

"Brendan was in control the entire time. He had the one inning when they started to threaten, gave up 1 or 2 runs that inning, but he was able to limit the big innings and that was key today," said Kurich about May's performance on the mound.

Junior All-American first baseman Kyler Kent (Pottsboro, Texas) paced the Gorloks offense with a 4-for-6 effort with four runs scored and 4 RBI against the Cougars to extend his hit streak to a career best 11 games, while sophomore third baseman Ben Swords (Freeport, Ill./Freeport) went 3-for-5 with a career-high tying five runs scored and junior left fielder A.J. Smith (DuQuoin,Ill./DuQuoin) also had three hits in the win. The other Gorloks with three hits were junior catcher Joe Swanson (Park Ridge, Ill./Maine West) and sophomore shortstop Matt Staker (El Cajon, Calif./Saint Augustine). In fact, every Gorlok starter had at least one hit and eight of the nine starters scored at least a run. 

"Overall, our line-up has been more relaxed at the plate and seeing our pitches and hitting them well, because early in the year, we were trying to push too much," Swords said following the game. 

Swords got the scoring started in the first inning for the Gorloks as he drilled a 3-1 pitch from CUC starter Alex Carinigan over the fence in center for his seventh home run of the season. 

The Cougars, though, took the lead in the bottom of the first on Mariotti's 2-run homer over the fence in center off of Borman. Mariotti's homer was his 13th of the season and gave the Cougars a 2-1 lead.

Webster tied the game in the top of the second as Kent hit the first pitch he saw from Carinigan over the fence in left for his seventh homer of the season.

In the third inning, the Gorloks took a 4-2 lead thanks to four straight singles by senior right fielder Nate Tholl (Tinley Park, Ill./John A. Logan CC), Swords, Smith and Kent with the latter two singles bringing home runs. 

The Cougars, though, would come right back in the bottom of the third and plate two runs on three hits to retie the game. 

Through the first three innings of the game, the teams combined for eight runs on 12 hits. 

In the fourth inning, Webster retook the lead thanks to three singles, including an RBI single off the bate of junior center fielder Aron Hopp (Lincoln, Ill./Lincoln College), who had two hits and 2 RBI in the game. 

Webster's lead grew to 8-4 in the top of the fifth as they scored three runs on two hits and appeared poised to break the game wide open, but CUC right fielder Matt Fauth made an impressive catch on a ball hit to the deep right by Tholl with two outs. Two of WU's three runs in the innning were scored on bases loaded hit batsman by both Anthony Rogers and Cade Laudenschlager, who were the third and fourth pitchers of the game for the Cougars. 

"That catch in right field (in the fifth) was a big play at that time in the game, " said Kurich, who is now 28-22 in the NCAA Tournament as Webster's coach. "I would've liked to seen that thing get done cause that would've broken the game open more, but what a great play made by that kid in right field."

CUC would get one of those runs back in the bottom of the fifth thanks to three singles, including an RBI single by Connor Brandon, which was his team leading 65th RBI on the year. 

The Gorloks added two more runs in the sixth thanks to RBI singles by both Kent and Swanson to give Webster a 10-5 lead. 

Webster would then put the game out of reach in the seventh as they 11 hitters to plate and recorded five hits and scored six runs to push its lead to 16-5. The first run in the inning came home on a fielder's choice by Kent and the next run was scored when both Tholl and Kent executed a perfect double steal as Kent stole second and Tholl stole home. The next two runs were brought home on RBI singles by sophomore designated hitter Kellen Quigley (Bolingbrook, Ill./Bolingbrook) and Swanson, while the fifth run was scored on an RBI double by senior second baseman Danny Strohm (St. Louis, Mo./Greenville University) and the sixth run came home an RBI single by Hopp. 

The Gorloks added its 17th run in the top of the eighth thanks to a double by Swords, a single by Smith and a sacrifice fly off the bat of senior Christian Dahncke (Vienna, Ill./Southeastern Illinois), who was pinch hitting for Quigley. 

CUC would complete the scoring in the bottom of the eight against Santiago as the Cougars run was scored on a wild pitch by Santiago. 

The Cougars got two hits apiece from Jose Mercado, Bryan Vanduser, Justin Rodriguez and Mariotti in the loss.

Zach Litke (1-3) took the loss on the mound for CUC as he replaced Carinigan in the fourth innings and allowed three hits and two runs, while walking one and fanning none. Carinigan had allowed six hits and four runs over the first three innings, while striking out three and walking one.

Webster will join UMass-Boston, Babson, Chapman (Calif.), Birmingham-Southern, Heidelberg, Johns Hopkins and Washington and Jefferson in Cedar Rapids for this year's Division III World Series.

"It's been a few years since we've been to the World Series and now this is the first year it's going to be in Cedar Rapids, so that is exciting," the Webster coach added. "We talked about it in the huddle after the game, the first time we went were in awe of being there and let the moment get to us. I hope that doesn't happen to us this time as none of these guys have been there and you have to be able to handle the moment and not let it speed you up, so we'll see, we're playing good baseball. We don't know who were going to play, but it doesn't matter, everyone is good that this point and if we continue to play the way we've been playing, we'll be hard to deal with."

The Division III College World Series has two four-team, double-elimination brackets with the winners of each side meeting for a three-game series to determine the 2019 D-III National Champion. The NCAA will finalize first round match-ups in the World Series on Sunday morning at 10 a.m. ET. The NCAA Division III World Series will run from May 31-June 5 at Perfect Game Field at Veteran's Memorial Stadium in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, which is the home field of the Cedar Rapids Kernels of the Class A Midwest League.