Sauget, Ill., March 13th, 2021 – The Westminster College Blue Jays baseball team had some time off since their last games. The long layoff saw the Blue Jays return to play the defending conference champion Webster University Gorloks in their conference opener. Game two would see the Blue Jays come back to try to earn a split on the day and for a while it looked good for the Blue Jays. A volatile eighth inning was the Jays undoing in a 5-3 loss in game two. The loss dropped the Westminster record to 3-2 on the season and 0-2 in the SLIAC.
The Blue Jays offense was able to break through against the Webster starter in the third inning. Coltin Green would lead off the inning with a single. Austin Mayton would execute a sacrifice bunt to move Green into scoring position. After a Steven Diaz strike out, Connor Sherman would come through with an RBI single driving in the first run of the day for the Blue Jays. Staking them to a 1-0 lead.
Webster would tie the game with a run in the bottom of the fifth inning on a sacrifice fly.
The Blue Jays would retake the lead in the top of the seventh inning. Ben Parks led off the inning with a single. Derek Shikles would drop down a sacrifice bunt to get Parks to second. Hunter Mulholland would then single and Parks would advance to third. Robby Manor was brought in to pinch run for Mulholland. Parker Schneiders would hit an RBI single down the right field line scoring Parks and advancing Manor to second base. Coltin Green would then walk to load the bases with one out. Mayton would then ground a ball back to the pitcher who mishandled it enough that his only play was to first to get Mayton. Manor would score on the play giving the Jays a 3-1 lead.
The Gorloks would score a single run in the bottom of the inning to make it 3-2. The lead would hold up until the bottom of the eighth when the Gorloks would score three runs on three hits aided by two Blue Jay errors to take a 5-3 lead.
The Blue Jay starter Dawson Koch pitched six outstanding innings giving up one run on six hits while walking three and striking out one in a no decision.
The Blue Jays will be back in action on Wednesday when they will play another double header at Webster University. First pitch of game one is set for 12:00 p.m. and game two set for 3:00 p.m.
