ST. LOUIS, Mo. – The 11
th ranked Webster University baseball team was back on the diamond this afternoon when they traveled across town to take on the Fontbonne (Mo.) University Griffins for a SLIAC doubleheader. The Gorloks, who won the first game of the series yesterday, were able to sweep the doubleheader today as they won the first game by a final score of 21-5 and the second game by a final score of 9-4 to improve to 24-5 on the season and 12-2 in the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. With the sweep, Fontbonne falls to 21-11 on the year and 13-4 in the SLIAC.
The Gorloks bats were rolling in the first game as they recorded 19 hits for the second straight game. They got on the board first in the top of the first when
Ben Swords hit a two-run homerun to jump out to a 2-0 lead. Fontbonne answered with three runs in the bottom of the first, but five runs from the Gorloks over the next two innings put them up 7-3 in the contest. The Griffins once again cut into the Gorloks lead in the bottom of the third, but a five-run rally in the top of the fourth gave Webster a 12-4 advantage. The Griffins scored one final run in the bottom of the fourth, but nine runs over the final three innings gave Webster the 21-5 victory.
Alek Elges (6-2) was the starting pitcher in this one as he allowed 10 hits and five earned runs while striking out two in 6.0 innings.
Cade Gebhard pitched in relief as he allowed just one hit in the final inning of the game.
Parker Wielt led the way for Webster as he went 3-for-4 with a three-run homerun and five RBI.
Nathaniel Martinez and
Ben Swords also had great games as Martinez went 3-for-4 with four RBI and
Ben Swords went 2-for-3 with three RBI. In addition,
Adam Lovell went 2-for-5 with two RBI,
R.J. LaRocco went 3-for-5 with an RBI,
Evan Evola went 2-for-3 with an RBI,
Michael Ellis went 1-for-1 with two RBI,
Aron Hopp went 1-for-1 with two RBI, and
Malik Wirges added an RBI.
In the second game of the day, Webster recorded nine hits in the contest. They got off to a slow start as Fontbonne scored three runs in the first two innings to jump out to an early 3-0 lead. However, the Gorloks responded with six runs in the top of the third thanks to a solo homerun from
Malik Wirges, an RBI from
Ben Swords, a three-run triple from
Parker Wielt, and an RBI single from
A.J. Smith. The Gorloks added three runs in the final two innings and allowed the Griffins to score just one run in the bottom of the ninth to solidify the sweep.
Carter Hunt (4-0) was the starting pitcher in this one as he allowed seven hits and two earned runs while striking out four in 5.2 innings.
Ben Kowalski and
Cooper Hake pitched in relief as the two combined to allow three hits and one earned run while striking out five in the final 3.1 innings of the game.
Parker Wielt led the way at the plate in the second game as well as he went 1-for-5 with three RBI. In addition,
Ben Swords,
A.J. Smith,
Nathaniel Martinez,
Malik Wirges, and
Matt Staker each added an RBI.
The baseball team returns to the field on Monday, April 25
th when they host Franklin (Ind.) College for a nonconference doubleheader. The games will take place at Maryville (Mo.) University starting at 2 p.m.