GREENSBORO, N.C. – Webster University baseball pitcher Matt Mulhearn (Chicago Heights, Ill./Marian Catholic) added another award to his postseason awards tally on Thursday as the fifth-year senior  was named a 2021 First-Team NCAA Division III All-American selection by the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) and Rawlings.
 
The All-American honor is the second one in two days for Mulhearn as the Gorloks right-hander was named both a D3Baseball.com First-Team All-American and the D3Baseball.com National Pitcher of the Year on Wednesday.
 
All of this year's first team ABCA/Rawlings All-Region selections in the eight NCAA Division III regions were nominated for All-America honors. The ABCA will announce its Gold Glove Teams in all divisions on June 23, while the ABCA National Pitchers of the Year for all divisions will be announced on June 28, followed by the ABCA National Players of the Year in all divisions on June 30. All of those announcements will come during the 2021 NCAA Division I College World Series held at TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Neb.
 
Mulhearn was one of five Gorloks to earn ABCA/Rawlings All-Central Region honors this season as Mulhearn and second-year freshman pitcher Jordan Smevoll (Dyer, Ind./Marian Catholic) were first team selections, while fifth-year senior first baseman Kyler Kent (Pottsboro, Texas/Pottsboro), fourth-year junior third baseman Ben Swords (Freeport, Ill./Freeport) and fifth-year senior designated hitter A.J. Smith (DuQuoin, Ill./DuQuoin) earned third team honors. In addition, Mulhearn was tabbed the ABCA/Rawlings Central Region Pitcher of the Year.
 
It marks the ninth consecutive season (there were no awards handed out in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic) that Webster has had an ABCA/Rawlings Division III All-American honoree and Mulhearn is just the third Gorlok to earn First-Team All-American honors from the ABCA/Rawlings as he joins Josh Fleming and Will Savage, who were first team selections in 2017 and 2010 respectively.
 
Mulhearn, who was named the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Year and was also a Third-Team ABCA/Rawlings All-American in 2019, earns his First-Team All-American accolade as a starting pitcher after posting a 12-1 record and an 0.90 ERA. On the season, Mulhearn made 13 starts and tossed six complete games, threw two shutouts and in 100 innings of work, allowed 62 hits, 14 runs, 10 earned runs, struck out a school and SLIAC single-season record 137 and walked just 10. The 137 strikeouts and 12 wins are tops in Division III baseball, while his 0.72 WHIP is third-best in Division III and his 0.90 ERA is sixth-best in Division III.
 
On the year, he recorded double-digit strikeouts in eight of his 13 starts, including a school record 17 strikeouts in his no-hitter against Eureka on April 2 and ended the season winning six consecutive starts and pitched at least eight innings in nine of his 13 starts. In his final start of the season against Transylvania in the first round of the NCAA Decatur, Illinois Regional this past Thursday, Mulhearn tossed a complete game as he allowed four hits and one unearned run, while striking out 11 and walking one in his 129 pitch effort.
 
In his five-year career as a Gorlok, Mulhearn holds school career marks for innings pitched (346), wins (34), appearances (67), strikeouts (364) and holds school single season marks for innings pitched (105.2 in 2019), strikeouts (137 in 2021), wins (12 in 2019 and 2021), while his 0.90 ERA this season in second on the school's single season charts. His 34 wins are not only a school record, but also a SLIAC record, while his 364 career strikeouts are second-most in SLIAC history.
 
Mulhearn was the only SLIAC player named to one of the three 2021 ABCA/Rawlings All-American Baseball Teams.

Mulhearn and his Gorlok teammates concluded their 2021 season with a 37-8 overall record after going 2-2 at last weekend's Decatur, Illinois Regional hosted by Millikin University. Along with advancing to the NCAA Division III Baseball Tournament for the fourth consecutive season and 14th time overall, the Gorloks also captured its 14th consecutive SLIAC regular season title and earned its third straight SLIAC Tournament championship. The 37 wins are tied for the second-most in the program's history and the most since the 2019 team also won 37 wins on its way to advancing to the Division III World Series.