Baseball finishes season with walk-off victory over Webster

St. Louis, Mo. - Fontbonne University baseball earned a come-from-behind walk-off victory over Webster University in their season finale Sunday afternoon. The Griffins avoided the series sweep in the bottom of the ninth on a sacrifice fly to close out their season with a 6-5 win.

Webster got on the scoreboard early with a 3-0 lead but after the Griffins secured a lone run in the bottom of the third, the Gorloks added another run in the fourth. Ryan Schocker doubled in the bottom half of the inning and crossed the plate after a wild pitch and single by senior Justin Marks.

With Webster leading 4-2, the visiting team added an insurance run in the seventh, but the 5-2 lead was short-lived.

After senior Ethan Boyer walked, fellow senior Ben Greenway launched a two-run home run in what he thought would be his final collegiate at-bat. The momentum shifted Fontbonne's way as the Griffins cut Webster's lead to one in the eighth inning. With two outs, senior Logan Mueth singled and went to second after Deiydon Rushing was hit by pitch. Senior Steven Belovich pinch ran for Mueth and scored after the Gorloks awarded the Griffins life when Matt Tossick reached base on an fielding error by Webster's shortstop.

With a tied ball game, Levi Earnest went to the mound for Fontbonne. After a groundout, single and an error, Webster had base runners on first and second with one out. After a flyout, Earnest stranded both runners on a strikeout.

Fontbonne's fans were hyped up when Michael Golich, a previous Gorlok, singled up the middle to lead off the bottom of the ninth inning. Webster decided to change pitchers and Golich reached third on a failed pickoff attempt on an errant throw by Matt Goro. Golich would have reached third anyway since Boyer and Greenway both walked. Webster brought their right fielder in to the infield, trying to eliminate a Griffin run with the bases loaded and no outs. Schocker had other ideas. The junior hit a high fly ball, allowing Golich to score the winning run on a walk-off sacrifice fly.

Golich finished the day three-for-five with two runs scored. Boyer went two-for-three with two walks, an RBI and one run scored. Both of Boyers hits were doubles as Golich, Schocker and Evan Siegler recorded one double each. Siegler's came on a pinch hit that went down the right-field line in the seventh.

Brett Lange went to the mound in relief during the fourth inning for starter Brendan Beck. After a single to load the bases, Lange got out of the jam with a strikeout to end the inning. He then struck out two Gorloks in the fifth and sent all three Webster batters in the sixth inning back to the dugout on three flyouts. Lange allowed just one hit, the first batter he faced, after pitching 2.1 innings. Michael Puckett Jr. relieved Lange. He allowed just one hit over two innings. Earnest earned his fifth win of the season to close out the game.

Sunday's game was the last collegiate contest for eight seniors as Steven Belovich, Ethan Borrowman, Ethan Boyer, Joey Clemente, Ben Greenway, Justin Marks, Logan Mueth and Patrick Shuff will be graduating.

The Griffins finish their season 18-21 overall and third in the West Division with a 13-9 record, missing the conference tournament by one game. Be on the lookout next week for a season recap.