SAUGET, Ill. - The No./No. 4-ranked Webster Baseball team concluded its four-game St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference series with Fontbonne University here Monday by splitting a doubleheader against the Griffins at GCS Credit Union Ballpark. 

Webster opened the day by suffering a 4-2 loss in the opener, before scoring runs in six of the eight innings played en route to earning an 11-1 run-ruled win in eight innings in the second game of the twinbill.

Monday's doubleheader split helped Webster earn its sixth series win in league play and improve its record to 26-6 overall and 21-3 in the SLIAC, while Fontbonne moves to 18-12 overall and 15-5 in the league.

With two weeks to go in the regular season, the Gorloks are currently in first place in the league standings, but they have played four more games in the league play then second place Spalding, who is 17-3 in the league and has two league series left, while Webster has one last league series to play next weekend at Iowa Wesleyan.

For the doubleheader, Webster outhit Fontbonne, 19-12, but left a total of 17 runners on bases in the two games, including stranding 11 in the second game as the Gorloks drew nine walks, including fifth-year senior All-American first baseman Kyler Kent (Pottsboro, Texas/Pottsboro) being walked three times. 

Fifth-year senior centerfielder Aron Hopp (Lincoln, Ill./Lincoln College) going 4-for-5 at the plate with two RBI and a run scored on the day, while senior designated hitter A.J. Smith (DuQuoin, Ill./DuQuoin) went 3-for-4 with two runs scored in the second game and fourth-year junior All-American third baseman Ben Swords (Freeport, Ill./Freeport) had three hits in eight at-bats on the day and had 3 RBI.

After losing 4-2 in the first game of doubleheader as their offense was held to just six hits, the Gorlok bats awoke in the second game as they had at least at hit in seven of the eight innings and finished with 13 hits, including four extra base hits, two of which were home runs. 

The Gorloks got on scoreboard in the bottom of the first inning in the second game thanks to a walk by Kent and an RBI double to left center by Swords off of Fontbonee starting pitcher Derek Morganthaler. 

Fontbonne, though, would use two hits, a walk, an error by senior second baseman Jake Knoebel (Plainfield, Ill./Plainfield East) and a wild pitch from freshman hurler J.T. Miller (Centennial, Colo./Regis Jesuit) to plate a run and tie the game. 

Webster would get run back in the bottom of the third inning as freshman leftfielder R.J. LaRocco (San Diego, Calif./Point Loma) led off with a double to left, moved to third on a ground out by Kent and scored on a groundout by Swords to give the Gorloks a 2-1 lead.

The Griffins came back in the fourth and loaded the bases on a single and two hit batsmen from third-year sophomore pitcher Joey Marko (Winfield, Mo./Winfield), who replaced Miller in the inning after allowing a one-out single to Thomas Purschke, but Marko would fail to allow any runs to score to keep Webster in the lead. 

Webster would push its lead to 3-1 in the bottom of the fourth inning off of Fontbonne reliever Tyson Wilson as the run was scored on a wild pitch by Wilson with the bases loaded. In the inning, the Gorloks drew three walks and got its only hit on an infield single to fourth-year junior rightfielder Adam Lovell (Lafayette, Ind./Saint Joseph's College). 

The Gorloks lead grew to 8-1 in the bottom of the fifth as they used four hits and plated five runs with four of those runs coming off the bat of LaRocco, who hit a grand slam that just cleared the wall in left field. Webster's other run was scored when Hopp was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. 

Smith gave the Gorloks a 9-1 lead in the sixth inning as he led off the inning with a home run into a stiff wind over the fence in right field. The homer was Smith's team leading sixth of the season. 

Webster would cap the scoring in the bottom of the eighth to end the game early due to the 10-run mercy rule as they scored its first run on a wild pitch by Mason Lewis and scored its second run on an RBI single to left by Lovell, that plated fourth-year junior shortstop Matt Staker (El Cajon, Calif./Saint Augustine), who had walked earlier in the inning. 

Marko was credited with the win in the second game as he pitched 3.2 innings and allowed one hit and no runs, while walking one, hitting two batters and striking out two to lowered his season ERA to 1.93 and improve to 2-0 on the season.

Morganthaler (5-2) took the loss for Fontbonne as he pitched three-plus innings and allowed four hits and two runs, while walking one and striking out none. The next four Fontbonne relievers combined to allowed nine hits, nine runs, record eight walks and strike out five. 

Along with Smith's three hits, Lovell, LaRocco and Hopp each had two hits, while LaRocco scored two runs and had 4 RBI. 

Five different Fontbonne players recorded a hit in the second game. 

Meanwhile, in Monday's first game, Webster was unable to solve the pitching of Nick Glaser as he seemed to hold the Gorlok bats at bay throughout most of game as Webster had six hits and left six runners on base. 

The Gorloks would score the first run of the game in the opener as Hopp brought home a run on his RBI single through the left side in the second inning off of Glaser. 

Fontbonne would finally get into the scoring column in the fifth inning as they sent 10 hitters to the plate and used four hits and a Gorlok error to plate four runs and take a 4-1 lead. One of the runs was scored when freshman reliever Alek Elges (Littleton, Colo./J.K. Mullen) hit Matt Manint with a pitch with the bases loaded. Elges had relieved fourth-year junior starter Sean Beaver (San Diego, Calif./Scripps Ranch) prior to the hit batsman. 

Webster would get one of those runs back in the bottom of the fifth inning thanks to a one-out double by Lovell and an RBI single up the middle off the bat of Swords to cut Fontbonne's lead to 4-2.

Fourth-year junior Jake Anderson (Bolingbrook, Ill./Bolingbrook) would get into a jam in the seventh as he allowed a lead-off single to Colby Shivers and hit Daniel Youngblood with a pitch, before rallying to retire the next three Griffins in order to keep the score at 4-2. 

Trailing by two runs heading into the final inning, Hopp would deliver a one-out double down the right field line, but would be stranded at second as Glaser would force Lovell to line out to short and then ended the game by getting LaRocco to line out to right. 

Glaser (3-2) pitched all seven innings and along with allowing just six hits and two runs, he would strike out seven and walk one. 

Beaver (0-1) took the loss for Webster as he pitched four-plus innings and allowed three hits and three runs (two earned runs), while striking out two and walking none. 

Hopp and Swords each had two hits in the first game, while Shivers and Tyler Chambliss each had two hits for the Griffins. 

The Gorloks will now take 12 days off before concluding the 2021 regular season by playing a four game SLIAC series on May 8-9 in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, against Iowa Wesleyan.