WEBSTER GROVES – Webster University Baseball is set to begin defense of its 2019 St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Tournament championship this Thursday, May 13 as the top-seeded and SLIAC regular season champion Gorloks meet eighth-seeded Eureka College in a 3:30 p.m. first round match-up at CarShield Field in O'Fallon, Mo. 

The Gorloks, who have won two straight SLIAC Tournament championships and a league record 10 overall tournament titles, enter the tournament having won five consecutive games since a 4-2 loss at home to Fontbonne on April 26 and are sporting a 30-6 overall record and claimed its 14th consecutive SLIAC regular season title after posting a 25-3 mark in league play. 

This year's SLIAC Baseball Tournament will feature a different format as all eight teams have qualified for the event and the eight teams will be broken into two four-team pods and the tournament will be played over two weekends as the winners of the two pods will meet in a best of three championship series that is scheduled for May 21-22 at the site of the highest remaining seeded team and the winner of the championship series earns the league's automatic bid to the 2021 NCAA Division III Baseball Tournament. 

Along with splitting the tournament into two pods, the first two days of pod play will be held at both CarShield Field and Shaw Park in Clayton, Mo., before CarShield Field will host the remainder of the games on both Friday and Saturday. 

Webster is in Pod 1 and will be joined in the pod by Eureka, fourth-seeded Westminster and fifth-seeded Greenville, while Pod 2 features No. 2 seeded Spalding, No. 3 seeded Fontbonne, No. 6 seeded Iowa Wesleyan and No. 7 seeded Blackburn. Pod 1 will play their games on Thursday at CarShield Field and their first two games on Friday at Shaw Park, while Pod 2 will play their two games on Thursday at Shaw Park, before playing their games on Friday at CarShield Field. Pod 1 will play its remaining games (1 on Friday and possibly two games on Saturday) at CarShield Field. 

Webster and Spalding, who earned votes in the latest D3Baseball.com poll, would be considered as perhaps the two favorites to meet each other next weekend in the championship series as those two teams each won 20-plus league games and combined to post a 49-7 overall record in league play as Webster went 25-3 with its losses coming at home to Spalding (5-2) on March 27, at home on March 30 to Westminster (8-3) and to Fontbonne (4-2) on April 26. Three of Spalding's four losses in league play came at the hands of Webster as the Gorloks won the series against the Golden Eagles. In addition to winning 49 league games, Webster and Spalding enter the postseason sporting a combined overall record of 56-19 as along with Webster's 30-6 record, Spalding is 26-13 on the year. 

Webster, whose 25 league wins are tied for the most in the program's history, comes in the tournament with one of the top pitching staffs in Division III baseball as the Gorloks boast a 1.97 team ERA on the season, which is tops in the SLIAC and third nationally in Division III. Along with being third in Division III in ERA, the Gorloks are fourth nationally in WHIP (0.99) and lead Division III in shutouts with nine. The nine shutouts are one shy of tying the school's single season record of 10 shutouts which was set in 2017, that featured current Tampa Bay Ray pitcher Josh Fleming.

On the year, Webster's pitchers have thrown four complete games and in 302 innings of work, they have recorded 334 strikeouts and have walked 96 and has picked up seven saves, including three of those saves coming from freshman Alek Elges (Littleton, Colo./J.K. Mullen). 

Along with posting an ERA of 1.97, the Gorloks also lead the league in hitting as they have recorded a team batting average of .304 and also leads the league and is 11th nationally in fielding percentage at .975 as the Gorloks have committed 31 errors in 36 games and have also turned 18 double plays. 

Leading the way for Webster's pitching staff is fifth-year senior All-American Matt Mulhearn (Chicago Heights, Ill./Marian Catholic) as he leads the league in ERA (0.83), wins (9), strikeouts (107), WHIP (0.63), starts (10), complete games (4) and strikeouts per nine innings (12.67). On the season, Mulhearn, who was a five-time SLIAC Pitcher of the Week during the regular season, is 9-1 with four complete games and two shutouts and in 76 innings of work, he has allowed 42 hits, 10 runs, seven earned runs, has walked six and struck out 107, which is eight strikeouts shy of Fleming's single season school record of 115 set in 2017. Earlier this season against Eureka, Mulhearn tossed his first career no-hitter and has had double digit strikeouts in six games, including a school record 17 strikeouts in that no-hitter against Eureka. He has pitched eight or more innings in seven of his 10 starts and enters the postseason having won his last three starts and has allowed just 10 hits, two unearned runs in 25 innings and has had 34 strikeouts and walked just one. 

In addition to Mulhearn, who set a new SLIAC and Webster career record with 31 victories after his 4-2 win on Sunday at Iowa Wesleyan, second-year freshman Jordan Smevoll (Dyer, Ind./Marian Catholic) is 7-0 with a 1.46 ERA. In nine appearances and nine starts, he has pitched 49.1 innings and has allowed 37 hits, nine runs, eight earned runs, walked 14 and struck out 45. He has struck out five or more hitters in six of his nine starts, including a career high eight strikeouts in five innings in an 11-0 win at Greenville.

The Gorloks other two starters - fourth-year junior Sean Beaver (San Diego, Calif./Scripps Ranch) and freshman J.T. Miller (Centennial, Colo./Regis Jesuit) have combined to go 2-2 on the season with a combined 2.11 ERA. In 47 combined innings of work, Beaver and Miller have recorded a combined 47 strikeouts and 19 walks as Beaver is 0-1 with a 2.76 ERA with 18 strikeouts and six walks in 16.1 innings of work, while Miller is 2-1 with a 1.76 ERA and in 30.2 innings of work, he has struck out 29 and walked 13. 

 
On the season, Webster's pitchers have recorded 334 strikeouts and have walked 96 and are averaging 9.3 strikeouts per game and allowing just 2.4 runs per game. 

Meanwhile, on offense, along with hitting a league-best .304, the Gorloks are second in the league in both hits (354) and runs (274) and leads the league in runs per game (7.6), on-base percentage (.410) and hit by pitches (70) and is third in doubles with 59 and the Gorloks have hit seven triples, 25 home runs, have drawn 158 walks and is second in stolen bases with 71 as they are 71-for-93 on stolen bases. 
 

Leading the way offensively for the Gorloks is fifth-year senior All-American first baseman Kyler Kent (Pottsboro, Texas/Pottsboro) and fifth-year senior designated hitter/second baseman A.J. Smith (DuQuoin, Ill./DuQuoin). Kent leads the team in batting average (.364), tied for the team lead in hits (344) and is second in RBI (26) and is tied for fifth in runs scored (24) and has struck out just nine times in 120 at-bats and enters the postseason having recorded 202 career hits and is one of four players in school history to record 200 career hits, while Smith is hitting .350 and is tied for the team lead in RBI (28) and is second in hits with 41 and is third in runs scored with 31. In addition, he has hit eight doubles, two triples and leads the team in home runs (6) and is 7-for-9 in stolen bases. Kent and Smith have each recorded 14 multi-hit games and a combined 15 multiple RBI games. 

Along with Kent and Smith, four other regulars in the starting line-up are hitting over .300 on the season. The other .300 hitters are fourth-year junior All-American third baseman/shortstop Ben Swords (Freeport, Ill./Freeport), third-year sophomore catcher Zach Goodman (Greenwood Village, Colo./Arapahoe) and fourth-year sophomore third baseman/second baseman Mitch Daniels (Columbia, Ill./Columbia) and freshman leftfielder R.J. LaRocco (San Diego, Calif./Point Loma). 

Swords is hitting .331 with a team-high tying 44 hits and has scored 35 runs, leads the team in doubles with 13 and triples with three and has had 23 RBI, while Goodman is hitting .321 with 18 hits, 11 runs scored, two doubles, one home run and 15 RBI and Daniels is hitting .313 with 26 hits, 18 runs scored, two doubles, 13 RBI and is 6-for-8 on stolen bases. LaRocco is hitting .301 with 31 hits, 24 runs scored, six doubles, five home runs and 28 RBI and has walked 16 times and is 12-for-13 on stolen bases.  

Other key players for the Gorloks are fourth-year junior rightfielder Adam Lovell (Lafayette, Ind./Saint Joseph's College), freshman designated hitter/outfielder Levi Hall (Oceanside, Calif./El Camino) and fifth-year senior centerfielder Aron Hopp (Lincoln, Ill./Lincoln College). Lovell is hitting .294 with 37 hits and leads the team in runs scored (37) and has had 21 RBI, hit six doubles, has walked 23 times and is 16-for-21 on stolen bases, while Hall is hitting .306 and has had four home runs, 16 RBI and has scored eight runs and Hopp, who enters the postseason on a 10-game hitting streak, is hitting .274 with 26 hits, 28 runs scored, four doubles, one home run and 22 RBI and is 7-for-13 on stolen bases. 
 

As a team, Webster has hit 91 extra base hits as they have had 59 doubles, seven triples and 25 home runs and is 71-for-93 in stolen bases and those 71 stolen bases are second in the league and 35th nationally in Division III. In addition, Webster has walked 158 times, which is second in the SLIAC and have been hit by 70 pitches, which is 12th in Division III on the year. 

Webster, who is coached by Bill Kurich, has posted a 38-19 all-time record in the SLIAC Tournament, including winning the championship a league-best 10 times (2005, 2006, 2007, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2018 and 2019) and was runner-up in 1999. 

 
Kurich is in his 15th season at the helm of the Gorloks baseball team and has posted a 471-180 overall record and has been named the SLIAC Coach of the Year seven times with the most recent honor coming in 2018 as he shared the honor with Spalding's Matt Downs. 
 
In addition to Webster's 38 wins, the seven other teams in this year's SLIAC Tournament have combined to post an 83-98 overall record in the SLIAC Tournament and have won eight titles. Westminster has won four titles with the most recent coming in 2016, while Greenville and Fontbonne have each won two titles with those coming most recently in 2017 and 2009 respectively. The other tournament titles have been won by former members MacMurray, who won four titles (1991, '93, '96, '97) and Maryville University, who won the title in 1992.