2021 SLIAC Baseball Championship Series
For the first time in conference history the conference will hold a best of three game series to determine its baseball tournament champion. This weekend's championship series matching No. 1 seeded Webster University and No. 2 seeded Spalding University will take place on Friday and Saturday, with a doubleheader set for a 5 p.m. start on Friday and a if necessary game to be played on Saturday at 6 p.m. All games will be played at GCS Ballpark in Sauget, Ill. The winner of the SLIAC Championship Series will get the league's automatic qualifier bid to the 2021 NCAA Division III Baseball Tournament, which begins next weekend.Â
You can watch every game of the 2021 SLIAC Championship Series with College Casts. Just head over to the tournament page and look for the video link HERE
Season Series:Â Spalding and Webster played a four game series during the regular season, the final weekend in March, with Webster taking the series 3-1. Webster won game one of the series 10-2 before falling 5-2 in game two. They closed out the weekend series with a double header sweep, winning 3-1 and 4-3.Â
Webster hit .289 in the series against Spalding, outscoring them 19-11 while holding the Golden Eagles to a .220 team batting average. Fourth-year junior All-American shortstop Ben Swords (Freeport, Ill./Freeport) and fifth-year All-American first baseman Kyler Kent (Pottsboro, Texas/Pottsboro) led Webster with six hits a piece while fifth-year senior second baseman A.J. Smith (DuQuoin, Ill./DuQuoin) did the most damage with six RBI. The Gorloks hit .316 with runners on base during the series and plated the runner from third base 7-of-11 times with less than two outs. The Gorlok bullpen allowed just three runs in 13 innings pitched over the weekend.
Spalding hit .220 in the series, slugging .260 while striking out 27 times. They were 6-of-8 in stolen bases and plated the runner from third twice in six chances with less than two outs. Evan Trentman led the Golden Eagles by going 6-for-15 at the plate, scoring six times. Eric Meyer was held to just two hits but walked four times and added one stolen base. The pitching staff saw its starters go 24 innings over the weekend, led by Caleb Collins' 8 inning, two-run outing when he struck out five in the Golden Eagles lone win of the series.Â
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SPALDING UNIVERSITY 'GOLDEN EAGLES' |
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Spalding is led by two-time SLIAC Player of the Year Eric Meyer. The senior shortstop is hitting .403 this season with 6 home runs and 47 runs batted in. He also has 16 stolen bases and 13 of his 42 hits are doubles, helping account for his .655 slugging percentage this season. He has support behind him in the form of in Dryden Schroeder and JT Johnson. Schroeder is hitting .306 with 22 RBI while Johnson is batting .282 with 22 RBI. Meyer is able to do his damage thanks to Mitchell Langley and Evan Trentman setting the table. Langley is hitting .319 this season, scoring 29 runs, and has three triples and 15 stolen bases. Trentman is hitting at a .271 clip, with a team best 45 runs scored.
The Golden Eagles pitching staff is led by First Team All-Conference selection Jack Parisi. The junior right-hander is 8-3 this season with a 1.55 earned-run average in a team-high 69.2 innings pitched. He has 91 strikeouts and just 25 walks. Behind him is freshman Caleb Collins, who is 7-1 with a 1.64 E.R.A. and junior Peyton Hood, who is 7-2 with a 0.89 E.R.A. Aaron Blake is the top arm out of the pen, holding a 1.56 E.R.A. with two saves and averaging nearly a strikeout per inning.Â
Fielding wise, Spalding is second in the league with a .958 percentage and have turned a league best 30 double plays this season while allowing the second fewest stolen bases this season at 41.Â
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How They Got Here |
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#2 seed Spalding rolled through their pod last weekend, out scoring its opponents 29-4 in its three wins. The Golden Eagles have scored the second most runs this postseason while their pitching staff was one of just two staffs to record a shutout. Spalding topped third-seeded Fontbonne 7-2 in their pod finale on Saturday at CarShield Field. |
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WEBSTER UNIVERSITY 'GORLOKS' |
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Webster boasts a deep lineup that features six starters hitting .300 or better. Kent is leading the way with a .374 average to go along with one of the better batting eyes in the league; walking 19 times while striking out just nine times. Smith provides pop as he has had six home runs and 30 RBI, along with his .339 average, while Swords is hitting .338 with a team-high 15 doubles to go with his 29 RBI. Third-year sophomore catcher Zach Goodman (Greenwood Village, Colo./Arapahoe) is batting .313 while freshman leftfielder R.J. LaRocco (San Diego, Calif./Point Loma), the SLIAC Newcomer of the Year, is batting .310 with five home runs and 29 RBI. Fourth-year sophomore third baseman Mitch Daniels (Columbia, Ill./Columbia) has moved over to fill in at third base and provided the Gorloks with a .308 average.Â
On the mound the Gorloks are anchored by SLIAC Pitcher of the Year, fifth-year senior Matt Mulhearn (Chicago Heights, Ill./Marian Catholic). Mulhearn has long been one of the league's most consistent hurlers, recording double digit wins in each of his last three full seasons and is the SLIAC's all-time leader in wins with 32. He is 10-1 this season with four complete games and a 0.77 earned-run average over 82 innings with 117 strikeouts; just 11 away from setting a new SLIAC single season mark. Second-year freshman Jordan Smevoll (Dyer, Ind./Marian Catholic) gives the Gorloks another arm behind Mulhearn. The southpaw is 8-0 this season with a 1.37 E.R.A. and 53 strikeouts over 59 innings pitched. After those two the Gorloks have a stable of arms to turn to with four additional pitchers recording at least 20 innings thrown this spring.
A staple of the Gorloks is their defense, which once again leads the conference with a .974 fielding percentage, committing just 35 errors this spring; 18 fewer than the next closest team. The Gorloks have turned 22 double plays this season and allowed a total of 30 stolen bases.Â
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How They Got Here |
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Webster, the top seed in the tournament and the two-time reigning SLIAC Tournament Champions, went 3-0 in their pod to get to the SLIAC Championship Series. The Gorloks out scored their opponents 18-5 in the tournament, concluding with a 4-1 win over fourth-seeded Westminster in the pod finale on Saturday at CarShield Field. |
