SportsApril 23-29, 2014 Page 8

The Webster University baseball team remained num-ber two in the nation in the NCAA rankings, the D3base-ball.com rankings and the American Baseball Coaches Association Poll despite 10 straight wins against NCAA Division-III opponents.

A sweep of Spalding Uni-versity (Ky.), No. 2 in the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference behind Webster, helped give the Gorloks (26-4, 18-0 in the conference) two No. 1 overall votes in the D3Baseball.com rankings re-leased April 21.

Webster Head Coach Bill Kurich is a voting member for the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA). He gave his No. 1 vote in the ABCA poll to the incumbent, Linfield College, (Ore.) Lin-field lost to fellow Northwest Conference opponent George Fox University, (Ore.) on April 18. It was Linfields second loss to a Division-III team this sea-son.

Webster currently leads the SLIAC conference, and if they win it, they will receive an automatic bid to the post-season.

Junior first baseman Jeff Kammer said he had the No. 1 rank on his mind all week after Linfields loss. Kammers homerun and two RBI in game two of the weekend against Spalding set Webster up to complete the sweep on Sunday.

In game two of the Spald-ing series, sophomore pitcher Issac Behme threw a complete game and he currently leads the Gorlok staff with three complete games. He allowed one run on four hits, and tied his career high with 13 strike-outs in a game.

Its definitely a cool thing to know people know who you are, Behme said. Being up in the ranking is great, but I guess the bottom line is who wins at the end.

Senior second baseman Taylor Stoulp said the rankings dont build pressure or nerves, but rather they are for him.

Weve got a lot of guys who know how to handle it, Stoulp said. We just cant think about (trying to be No. 1) because if we do, then its a monkey on our backs.

Stoulp is one of nine se-niors who are trying to reach the College World Series (CWS) for the third straight year. Webster has finished fifth in the nation for the past two years. Websters starting lineup usually includes seven seniors who have all been to the CWS. Stoulp said certain expecta-

tions come from a team with that amount of experience.

If we arent playing at the end of May, its all for nothing, Kurich said. Nobody is scared of anyone once youre there. Rank doesnt affect anything at that point.

Kurich said one thing the rankings and national atten-tion add is a pressure to win. Webster plays its next seven games over, the next seven days but Kurich said he has to get his players to think one pitch at a time and not focus on the big picture: staying un-defeated in the conference.

You ask me game by game if we should win, and Ill tell you yes every time, Kurich said. Its a lot harder to say we are going to win seven in a row.

That expectation was what Kurich set for himself nine years ago when he was hired by former Athletic Director Tom Hart.

I told Coach Hart we should make the College World Series within five years, Kurich said. It took six years. But in the last three years, we

Webster baseball stays at No. 2 in rankings

On Monday, April 21 Web-ster University officially an-nounced Scott Kilgallon as the new athletic director (AD). Kil-gallon has served in the same position for the past 10 years at the University of WisconsinEau Claire (UWEC), a public liberal arts university located in Eau Claire, Wis.

UWEC has 22 intercolle-giate sports and more than 500 student-athletes. UWEC is a member of the Wisconsin Inter-collegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC), According to wiacs-ports.com, the WIAC has won more NCAA national champi-onships than any other confer-ence Division-III history. In the last 10 years, 46 national cham-pionship teams across all sports have come out of the WIAC.

In a prior interview with Webster Today, Paul Carney, as-sistant provost for Student Af-fairs and Athletics, expressed how he felt about the hire.

Everyone at Webster is ex-cited about Scott Kilgallon be-coming our new AD, Carney said. Scotts experience and ex-pertise in building a top-ranked, Division-III program were critical factors in our decision. We believe that with support from the university, together

with Scotts leadership and our student-athletes and coaches potential and hard work, we can achieve national recognition for Webster University athletics.

In the beginning of the cal-

endar year, Kilgallon announced he would retire from his posi-tion at UWEC as of June 30.

Its a good time to move on, Kilgallon said. One of the things I like to do is build pro-

grams, and weve done that a lot at the University of WisconsinEau Claire. Its tough when you change jobs, especially in athlet-ics, because its a lifestyle. You really put your heart and soul

into the job.UWEC has a total of four

NCAA and five National Asso-ciation of Intercollegiate Athlet-ics (NAIA) national titles. Three of those four NCAA national

titles came during Kilgallons time at UWEC: softball in 2008, womens cross country in 2009 and mens ice hockey in 2013.

That year, UWEC mens ice hockey team defeated Oswego State, N.Y. last season, 5-3, and secured the schools first nation-al title in hockey. Head Hockey Coach at UWEC Matt Leon praised Kilgallon on his hard work and commitment to the athletics at UWEC.

He did a great job in assem-bling the staff and coaches in the athletic department. Always has everyone working together, Matt Leon said. Hes coming to Webster with a lot of experi-ence and knowledge. During his time here at Eau Claire and at Vermont, hes done some great things.

I was lucky enough to be athletic director and a coach at Southern Vermont, and I loved it. I really put a lot of time and effort into my job there, Kilgal-lon said. I used to say to the staff there, Its not okay to think small; we need to think big. Lets bring something special to this college, and that same idea would carry over to Webster University as well.

Along with the national championships UWEC won during the duration of Kil-

Webster University hires Kilgallon as new athletic director

By Sam MastersonStaff Writer

By Taylor OverstreetStaff Writer

HOLLY SWAN / The JournalThe Webster University baseball team remained undefeated over the weekend in the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference with three straight wins over Spalding University .

HOLLY SWAN / The JournalThe Gorloks celebrate on Sunday, April 20. Dylan Dean Smith picked up his sixth win of the year in the game.

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Photo contributed by University of WisconsinEau Claire Athletic DepartmentScott Kilgallon holds hands with Lakken Burzynksi, a local girl and cousin of a Blugold football and volleyball player before a football game on September 1, 2012 against University of St. Thomas, Minn. at Carson Park, Wis. The game was part of a fundraiser to benefit her and her family.

Bill KurichHead baseball coach

You ask me game by game if we should win and Ill tell you yes every time. Its a lot harder to say we are going to win

seven in a row.

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Page 9See AD