SAUGET, Ill. - Webster University closed out the regular season portion of its 2019 season schedule here Saturday afternoon by sweeping a St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference doubleheader against Blackburn College on Senior Day at GCS Credit Union Ballpark.

The 19th/25th-ranked Gorloks opened Saturday's doubleheader with a 4-1 win over the Beavers and then rallied to pick up a 5-3 victory in the nightcap to extend its win streak to three straight games heading into next week's SLIAC Tournament. 

With the two wins, Webster improves to 29-10 overall and 18-4 in the SLIAC, while Blackburn finishes the season with a 9-29 record and a 6-16 league mark. Along with picking up the two wins, Webster was also able to earn a share of the regular season SLIAC title with Spalding (29-10 overall, 18-4 SLIAC) as the Golden Eagles dropped two of three games this weekend in its series at Greenville. Webster has now won or shared the SLIAC regular season title in baseball for 13 consecutive years. 

Between games of Saturday's doubleheader, the Gorloks honored its seven member senior class and this year's seniors are pitcher Jay Blake (Imperial, Mo./Mineral Area College), catcher Christian Dahncke (Vienna, Ill./Southeastern Illinois), pitcher Mike Kogut (Willow Springs, Ill./South Suburban College), infielder/outffielder Austin LaHue (Stillwater, Okla./Stillwater), pitcher Adrian Santiago (Chicago, Ill./Oakton College), second baseman Danny Strohm (St. Louis, Mo./Greenville University) and rightfielder Nate Tholl (Tinley Park, Ill./John A. Logan CC). 
 

With the completion of the regular season, Webster will now turn its attention to the postseason as the Gorloks will enter the SLIAC Tournament as the No. 1 seed from the West Division and will open play in the SLIAC Tournament on Thursday, May 9 at 5 p.m. in Greenville, Ill., against Greenville University, who earned the No. 2 seed from the East Division. 

Despite sharing the regular season title, Spalding earned the overall No. 1 seed in the SLIAC Tournament by virtue of its two wins over the Gorloks in Louisville, Ky., on March 20. In those games, Spalding won 9-3 and 6-5. 
 

Saturday's doubleheader with Blackburn came less than 24 hours after the Gorloks split a doubleheader on Friday in Carol Stream, Ill., against No. 1 ranked Concordia-Chicago. In that doubleheader, CUC picked up a 1-0 win in the opener, while the Gorloks won 2-1 in the nightcap. 

Against Blackburn, Webster's offense collected 14 hits, but only managed to score a total of nine runs against a Blackburn pitching staff that entered the game allowing nearly eight runs per game. 

In the two games, junior catcher Joe Swanson (Park Ridge, Ill./Maine West) went 3-for-5, while junior All-American first baseman Kyler Kent (Pottsboro, Texas/Pottsboro) added three hits, 3 RBI and scored two runs amd junior leftfielder A.J. Smith (DuQuoin, Ill./DuQuoin) also had three hits, including two doubles and 2 RBI. 

The Gorloks also got strong pitching from junior starter Dakota Borman (Freeport, Ill./Highland CC) in the opener and back-to-back impressive relief performances from Santiago, who picked up the save in the opener and the win in the nightcap.

Webster, who has now won 29 straight games in the series against Blackburn, opened the scoring in the opener in the bottom of the second inning on a sacrifice fly off the bat of sophomore shortstop Matt Staker (El Cajon, Calif./Saint Augustine). In the inning, Kent led off with a single, moved to second when sophomore designated hitter Jake Knoebel (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield East) was hit by a Jonathan Stepp pitch and both runners moved up on a bunt by Swanson.

The Gorloks lead grew to 2-0 in the third inning as Tholl drew a one out walk and would eventually score on an RBI double to left by Smith. 

Webster's pushed its lead to 4-0 in the fourth inning as they took advantage of a Blackburn error, a hit by pitch, a pinch hit single by sophomore Kellen Quigley (Bolingbrook, Ill./Bolingbrook), a wild pitch by Dalton Fisher, who relieved Stepp to open the inning and an RBI groundout by junior centerfielder Aron Hopp (Lincoln, Ill./Lincoln College) to plate two runs.

Borman was cruising along as he had allowed just two hits and a total of three base runners through the first four innings, before running into trouble in the fifth. In the fifth, Borman allowed a lead-off infield single to Austin Presley and later in the inning walked Christian Padilla with two outs to end his day on the mound. After walking Padilla for his third walk of the game, Borman was replaced on the mound by sophomore Jake Anderson (Bolingbrook, Ill./Bolingbrook) and Anderson would end the inning by striking out Trevor Platt. 

The Beavers, though, refused to go away as after Anderson retired the first two hitters in the sixth, he would allow back-to-back singles by Tyler Jackson and Mitchell Binder to put the tying run in the on-deck circle and that brought Santiago into game. Santiago would yield a run scoring single through right side by Ryan Steen that brought home Jackson with Blackburn's first and only run of the game, but on the play, Jackson would be thrown out at third as he got held up in run down between third base and home plate. 

In the bottom of the sixth, Staker reached on a two out bunt single and moved to third on a two-base throwing error by Binder at third base, but Staker would be stranded at third as Strohm fouled out to first to end the inning. 

Santiago would work around a two-out single in the seventh to lock up his seventh save of the season. 

Borman (3-1) tossed 4.2 innings and allowed two hits and no runs, while walking three and striking out five. Santiago, who won Friday's game against CUC in relief, pitched the final 1.1 innings and allowed two hits and no runs, while striking out one. 

Stepp (1-3) took the loss for Blackburn as he pitched three innings and allowed two hits and two runs, while walking two and striking out two. 

The Gorloks had five hits in the opener, including two by Kent, while Blackburn finished with six hits, including two from Binder. 

Both teams left five runners on base.

Meanwhile, in the nightcap, neither team would be able to score in the first five innings as the two teams combined for seven hits, but could turn any of those hits into runs early in the game.

Blackburn would finally find the scoreboard first in the sixth inning as the Beavers sent nine hitters to plate and used four hits and an error by Strohm at second base to plate three runs and take a 3-0 lead. The big hit in the inning was a two-run single by Steen off of Santiago, who replaced freshman starter Brandon May (St. Louis, Mo./St. John's Vianney) on the mound before Steen's at-bat. Following Steen's single, Padilla reached on the first error of the season by Strohm, which led to the Beavers third run of the inning.

The Gorloks, though, rallied in the bottom of the sixth as Hopp reached on a single, stole second and scored on an RBI double to center by Smith and Kent would then follow by drilling a 3-1 pitch from Sammy Gordon over the wall in right for a 2-run homer to tie the game. Kent's homer was his fifth of the season. 

After neither team scored in the seventh, the Gorloks would add two runs in the eighth to take a 5-3 lead. In the inning, the Gorloks used three hits and took advantage to three Blackburn errors. In the inning, the RBIs were recorded by sophomore third baseman Ben Swords (Freeport, Ill./Freeport) on a double and Kent on an error by Padilla at second base.

Santiago would then retire the Beavers in order in the ninth to secure Webster's win and also pick up his second win in as many days and improve his record to 6-2 on the year. In the nightcap, Santiago pitched 3.2 innings and allowed two hits and no runs, while walking one and striking out two in his 47 pitch outing.

May would pitch the first 5.1 innings and allowed seven hits and three runs (two earned), while striking out three and walking none.

Gordon (4-4) took the loss for Blackburn as he pitched eight innings and allowed nine hits and five runs (four earned), while walking one and fanning five. 

Swanson went 3-for-4 at the plate in the nightcap, while Smith added two hits and Kent had three RBI. 

Blackburn also had nine hits in the game as Stepp, Jackson, Steen and Steven Diaz each had two hits in the loss.