O'Fallon, Mo., May 15, 2021 – The #4 seeded Blue Jay baseball team advanced to the Pod 1 Championship of the SLIAC Tournament and took on the #1 seeded Webster University Gorloks for the second time in two days. This time the around the Blue Jays would fight with everything they had. A 1-1 game in the bottom of the sixth inning turned into a 4-1 season ending loss for the Blue Jays.
Freshman Dawson Koch would get the start for the Blue Jays. He cruised through the first two and two thirds Innings. However, with two out in the third a hit batsman was followed by an RBI double that scored the runner all the way from first to give the Gorloks a 1-0 lead.
The score stayed that way until the top of the sixth. The Blue Jays Parker Schnieders would double to the gap in left center field to lead off the inning. Back to back strikeouts left the Blue Jays in danger of stranding Schnieders. Leadoff hitter Steven Diaz was the last hope for tying the game in the sixth. He would come through with a two out line drive single to left center field to score Schnieders and knot the game 1-1.
The tie did not last long. Koch gave up a one out walk to the Gorloks Ben Swords and that was it for his day. Freshman reliever Bode Gebbink came on to try to get the Blue Jays out of the inning. Gebbink would appear to pick off Swords but he was ruled safe on a quick tag play at second base. Gebbink would then walk AJ Smith. With runners on first and second and one out the Gorloks would attempt a double steal. Senior catcher Derek Shikles would gun down Swords at third, or so it seemed. The home plate umpire called umpires interference as he granted time to the batter just before the pitch came home. The runners returned to first and second and the out was negated. Mitch Daniels would then double to the gap in left center field and score what would turn out to be the winning run. Kochs (4-5) final line read five and one third innings pitched giving up two runs on three hits. He walked one and struck out four as he picked up the loss.
The Blue Jays could not manage to get anything going against Gorlok starter Jordan Smevoli as he would not allow a hit in the final three innings and only allowed one base runner, a walk with one out in the eighth and was erased in an inning ending double play. The Gorloks would add two runs in the seventh for the final score of 4-1. The win advances the #1 seeded Gorloks to next weekends SLIAC Tournament Best of Three Championship series against the #2 seeded Spalding University Golden Eagles who beat Fontbonne 7-2 earlier Saturday.
The game saw the careers of four Blue Jay seniors come to an end Andrew Boessen, Derek Shikles, Tanner Nowatzki and Skyler Dickneite. We appreciate all their hard work and dedication to the Blue Jay baseball program and we wish them well in all that they do.
Boessen, who was the winning pitcher in game one of the tournament, and freshman Trent Morrow who's complete game masterpiece Friday night got the Blue Jays to Saturdays game were both named to the SLIAC All-Tournament team. The loss saw the Blue Jays end the season 19-21 overall and 13-15 in conference play.
