Decatur, Ill., May 30, 2021– The No. 1 Washington University in St. Louis baseball team is headed to the World Series for the first time in program history.

WashU claimed a 2-0 victory over Denison in its second game on Sunday to advance out of the Decatur Regional.

The Bears move to a 32-4 record while Denison ends its season at 27-13.

Game 1: Denison 14, WashU 10

WashU's pitching struggled in the first few innings, with The Big Red scoring two runs in the first, six in the second and two in the third for an early 10-0 lead.

Junior Zac Styka singled in the bottom of the third and advanced to third off of junior Tim Van Kirk's double down the left field line. Senior Henry Singer's two-run single put the first runs on the board for the Bears.

First-year Clayton Miller got on base in the bottom of the fourth and advanced to second when senior Johnny LaMantia earned a walk. Junior Bo Anderson hit an RBI double followed by a single to left from senior Collin Kahal that allowed LaMantia to score from third.

Styka and junior Caleb Durbin hit sacrifice flies for an additional two runs to tighten the score up to 10-6.

A triple and sacrifice fly from Denison in the fifth tacked on an additional run for the team. WashU countered in the bottom of the inning, scoring an additional three runs to tighten up the score once again to 11-9.

Anderson singled and advanced to second on a wild pitch with Kahal's single pushing him across home plate. Styka singled up the middle to advance Kahal home, and he scored off of a single from Durbin.

The Big Red found an additional two runs in the seventh with a solo homerun and an RBI single to increase its advantage to 13-9.

Durbin and Miller hit doubles in the eighth, with Miller's pushing Durbin home for the Bears' final run of the game. Denison scored once again in the ninth to end the game at 14-10.

Game 2: WashU 2, Denison 0

WashU's top reliever, senior Jared Fong, made the start and pitched seven and one-third scoreless innings. He earned his fourth win of the season with three strikeouts, including one looking.

Anderson was the first Bear to record a hit in the second inning, but the Bears were unable to push a run across the board, despite him making his way to third in the second inning. 

Kahal singled through the left side and advanced to second from sophomore Broghan O'Connor's sacrifice bunt in the fifth. He then advanced to third when sophomore Hunter Goldberg grounded out to the pitcher and was able to score when a pitch went into the dirt.

Singer singled and advanced to second on a wild pitch to start the sixth inning. He made it to third with a groundout from Durbin and advanced home when Anderson doubled to right field.

Senior Ryan Loutos entered the game in the eighth with runners on first and third with one out. The following two batters popped up to right and shortstop to enter the ninth scoreless.

Loutos recorded the final out of the game with a strikeout to advance the Bears out of the Regional and onto the World Series.

The World Series is June 4-9 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The official bracket will continue to be updated as Regionals are completed on Monday. Ticket information can be found here.