SAUGET, Ill. - Webster University Baseball opened up its doubleheader here Sunday afternoon with No. 2 ranked Washington University in St. Louis by falling 3-2 to the Bears on a 2-run homer in the top of the ninth inning off the bat of Caleb Durbin at GCS Credit Union Ballpark.

Durbin's homer, which came off of Webster fifth-year senior All-American pitcher Mulhearn (Chicago Heights, Ill./Marian Catholic), helped the Bears improve its record to 17-0 on the year, while fourth-ranked Webster had its five-game win streak snapped and fell to 18-5 on the year. 

Sunday's opener was a pitcher's duel against two of the top hurlers in NCAA Division III as Mulhearn faced WashU senior Ryan Loutos. Entering the game, those two righthanders had combined to go 11-0 with an 0.82 ERA on the season and had combined for 120 strikeouts and eight walks in a total of 77.1 innings. 

And those two pitchers didn't disappoint in Sunday's game as they each tossed complete games as Mulhearn allowed seven hits and three runs, while walking one and striking out seven in nine innings, while Loutos allowed eight hits and two runs, while striking out four and walking none. 

Unfortuntaely, it was one pitch in the top of the ninth spelled doom for Mulhearn (6-1) as after allowing a lead-off double to open the frame to Clayton Miller, he then allowed a 2-run homer on the first pitch to Caleb Durbin that sailed over the wall in left field to give the Bears a 3-2 lead. 

Durbin's homer proved to be the game winner as Loutos would allow a single to fifth-year senior All-American first baseman Kyler Kent (Pottsboro, Texas/Pottsboro) to open the bottom of the ninth, but would be erased as Loutos forced fifth-year senior designated hitter A.J. Smith (DuQuoin, Ill./DuQuoin) to line to a double play and then he ended the game by getting third-year sophomore catcher Zach Goodman (Greenwood Village, Colo./Arapahoe) to pop out to the shortstop to improve to 6-0 on the season. 

Durbin's ninth-inning homer was needed for the Bears as the Gorloks scored two runs in the bottom of the fifth inning as fourth-year junior shortstop Matt Staker (El Cajon, Calif./Saint Augustine), who went 3-for-3 at the plate in the game, reached on a one-out single through the left side and after second-year freshman Landon Vahle (Lee's Summitt, Mo./St. Michael Archangel) struck out, fourth-year junior rightfielder Adam Lovell (Lafayette, Ind./Saint Jospeh's College) hit a fly ball to center, but on the play WashU's rightfielder and centerfielder collided on the play and the ball dropped in for what became an inside-the-park home run to give Webster a 2-1 lead.

Lovell's inside-the-park homer came one inning after the Bears scored the first run of the game in the top of the fourth thanks to a double by Durbin and an RBI single by Johnny LaMantia off of Mulhearn. In fact, Durbin's double was the first hit of the game for the Bears and the first Mulhearn had allowed in 10.2 innings as he tossed a seven inning no-hitter in his last start against Eureka last Friday. The last hit he allowed before Durbin's double was a two-run homer to Spalding's Evan Trentman in the top of the eighth in his start on March 27 against the Golden Eagles.

Webster wasted a scoring chance in the bottom of third as they loaded the bases against Loutos on three straight singles by Staker, Vahle and Lovell with one out, but Loutos would escape the jam by striking out freshman leftfielder R.J. LaRocco (San Diego, Calif./Point Loma) and forcing Kent to foul out down the right field line.

In addition to Staker's three hits, Lovell also had three hits in the win as Webster finished with eight hits. 

Durbin had two of WashU's seven hits. 

The two teams played a second game on Sunday that began that was scheduled to begin around 5:10 p.m.