Decatur, Ill. – The Transylvania baseball team opened up its 2021 NCAA Tournament with a 4-1 loss to the No. 3 Webster College Gorloks in the first day of the NCAA Millikin Regional on Thursday afternoon at Workman Family Baseball Field.
The Gorloks commenced their 14th consecutive NCAA appearance by improving to 36-6 on the season while the Pioneers saw their record drop to 31-11 overall. Transylvania was relegated to the losers' bracket of the six-team regional and will try to keep its tournament run alive against Illinois College in a game currently scheduled for Friday at 11 a.m. / 10 a.m. Central.
Making their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 13 seasons, the Pioneers faced the number three team in the country on Thursday in a start delayed by two and a half hours due to a storm pattern that roared through Decatur in the early afternoon.
The second game of Thursday's scheduled tripleheader at Workman Family Baseball Field featured a matchup between two of the best pitchers in the nation in Transy senior and Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Year Jake Schmidt and Webster's Matt Mulhearn, the nation's strikeout leader.
Webster mined an early 2-0 lead against Schmidt in the bottom of the first inning as the Gorloks led off with consecutive baserunners via an infielding error and an infield hit. An ensuing sacrifice bunt moved both runners over to second and third base, and the third hit of the inning handed the Gorloks a 1-0 lead. Webster added a second run on a wild pitch before Schmidt recorded back-to-back outs to minimize the output from the Gorloks.
Schmidt sharpened from the hill as the afternoon aged while the Pioneers were denied a baserunner over the first three innings.
Transylvania finally dented Mulhearn in the fourth inning as Hudson Chastain wrote his latest piece of history with his 80th hit of the season. With his base hit into left centerfield, Chastain became the first Pioneer in program history to record 80 hits in a single season.
Riley Willbur followed immediately with a base hit as the Pioneers produced back-to-back hits in the fourth inning, but Mulhearn struck out Michael Blair for one of his 11 strikeouts on the day to quash a potential Pioneer rally.
Schmidt continued to keep the Pioneers close, blanking the Gorloks from the second through fifth innings before Webster added another run in the bottom of the sixth. Schmidt established a career high for innings pitched in a game as the senior worked through the end of the eighth inning, striking out five while allowing seven hits and three earned runs on the day.
Webster tacked on a fourth and final run in the eighth against Schmidt as the Gorloks earned two walks and converted a base hit into another score.
The Pioneers found one final flicker in the top of the ninth inning as Trent Youngblood delivered his 71st hit of the season, becoming just the second Pioneer ever to reach that mark in a season. Wade Lopiccolo's grounder was mishandled by the Gorlok second baseman to put two runners on with no outs for the Pioneers.
After Chastain flew out to right field, Willbur delivered the first run of the game for the Pioneers on a shot to right field to bring Youngblood across home plate. With Lopiccolo waiting at second, the Pioneers were unable to continue the rally as Mulhearn induced the rest of the order into two final outs.
Willbur went 2 for 4 with an RBI, his 48th of the season for the Pioneers. Trent Pahl drew the lone walk of the day for Transylvania. Chastain's fourth-inning hit was also his 214th career hit, tying him for first among Pioneers all time for career hits.
The regional No. 5 seed, Transylvania will take on the No. 6 seed Illinois College Blueboys tomorrow in the first game of a scheduled Friday tripleheader. The winner will advance to an NCAA Tournament game on Saturday at a time to be determined.
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