2008 Woodie Awards
Banged up Gorloks drop two in a row
By: Jon Baird
Issue date: 3/22/07 Section: Sports
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After going 5-4 in Phoenix, the Gorloks were handed two losses, 12-4 and 4-3, March 17 and 18 by the Knights during the weekend series.
Junior Joe Malat started on the mound for the Gorloks March 17, looking to pick up his first win of the season. He managed to get through three scoreless innings, allowing just three hits. The Gorloks snuck across a run in the bottom of the third, but Wartburg answered with a leadoff home run in the top of the fourth, and grabbed another run to take a 2-1 lead. Malat managed to get out of the inning only surrendering two hits.
In the bottom of the fourth, a two-out Gorlok rally gave the lead back to Webster, but when Malat returned to the mound in the fifth, the Knights made him wish he hadn't. Wartburg's sluggers tattooed Malat for six consecutive hits, three of which were home runs. Add an error to the mix, and the nine-run inning left the Gorloks trailing 11-3. Each team added runs later in the game, putting the final score at 12-4.
On March 18, the Gorloks had a fresh start and got in front early using two hits and a hit batter to take a 2-0 lead in the first. In the top of the second, Wartburg players proved that keeping a lead against them wasn't easy. The Knights struck back for two runs on three hits off Webster junior James Powell to tie the game at two. Webster's offense was shut down for the next five innings, while Wartburg scored two more runs taking a 4-2 lead into the bottom of the seventh inning. Senior first baseman Dan Branning managed to plate junior catcher Kurt Garner on an RBI double, but that was all the Gorloks could manage against Wartburg's bullpen.
The losses made the team's overall record 8-7, better than the rest of the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Only Webster and Maryville have winning non-conference records. Fontbonne's record is 8-8.
The Phoenix Invitational took a toll on the Gorloks as the team played the first three games into extra innings, taking the first two and losing the third. The team won five of its first six games before losing the last three, making the Gorloks 5-4 in the tournament.
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