SEWARD, Neb. – They meet again. For the third time in four years, rivals Concordia and Doane will square off in the GPAC Baseball Tournament Championship Game. The 2024 conference final will take place on Tuesday night at Plum Creek Park, a location that has hosted the championship game three previous times (2017, 2021 and 2022). The Bulldogs made their way through their own Concordia Bracket this past weekend thanks to a dramatic, come-from-behind win over Mount Marty (10-9 in 11 innings) and via two victories over Midland (8-3 and 9-1). Head Coach Ryan Dupic’s squad has improved to 40-13 while preparing for the program’s fifth-straight GPAC tournament championship game appearance.
2024 GPAC Championship Game
Tuesday, May 7: Concordia (40-13) vs. Doane (38-12), 6 p.m.
--Live Webcast | Live Stats | Location: Seward, Neb. (Plum Creek Park)
Admission: Admission is $10 for adults/senior citizens and $3 for K-12. Only those with NAIA passes and GPAC student ID’s will be admitted free of charge.
By the numbers
· The GPAC tournament success continues under Dupic’s leadership. The program has reached the conference tournament title game in 2017, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 (six times total). During that stretch, the Bulldogs have gone a combined 21-7 in GPAC postseason games while celebrating tournament championships in 2021 and 2022. As part of the ’22 championship run, Concordia dropped its opening game of the tournament to Northwestern and then rattled off five victories in a row, including three in one day. Second baseman Jay Adams delivered walk-off RBI singles in the final two games of the tournament – a 5-4 win over Northwestern and a 7-6 (10 innings) win over Jamestown in the championship clash. In the ’23 title game (played in Lincoln), Doane edged the Bulldogs, 1-0, while getting 8.2 shutout innings from ace pitcher Aaron Forrest. Scores for previous Concordia GPAC championship games were:
o 2023: Doane 1, Concordia 0
o 2022: Concordia 7, Jamestown 6 (10 innings)
o 2021: Concordia 7, Doane 2
o 2019: Jamestown 3, Concordia 0
o 2017: Midland 5, Concordia 3
· The Bulldogs have reached the GPAC tournament final each season that they have hosted their own portion of the bracket. The postseason path to the championship this season included a dramatic, come-from-behind 10-9 (11 innings) win over No. 8 seed Mount Marty before a pair of wins over No. 5 seed Midland (8-3 and 9-1). The Warriors did manage to force the “if necessary” game by posting a 7-5 victory over the Bulldogs as part of the Concordia Bracket finals on May 4. Dupic’s squad responded behind a stellar outing from starting pitcher Caden Johnson, who fired seven shutout innings and racked up 10 strikeouts. Offensively, Concordia found ways to win despite a modest five homers in its first four GPAC tournament games. In the 2024 postseason, Jay Adams leads the team with seven hits and a home run (44th of career). Joey Grabanski ended the game with Mount Marty by whistling a laser off the wall in left for a walk-off RBI single. One home run apiece has also been hit this postseason by Grabanski, Brad Hallock, Jaidan Quinn and Matt Rhoades.
· Six Bulldogs have homered at least 10 times this season: Quinn (25), Grabanski (23), Rhoades (16), Alec Blakestad (12), Adams (10) and Hallock (10). As a program, Concordia has hit at least 100 home runs in three-straight seasons. The Bulldogs hammered 90 home runs in their NAIA World Series qualifying season of 2021 and then followed that historic campaign up with 113 homers in 2022, 117 homers in 2023 and 107 homers so far in 2024. As the NAIA’s all-time home run king, Joey Grabanski has become the posterchild of the offensive surge the past few years. Grabanski has run his career home run total to 85 in 221 career games as a Bulldog. Three current teammates have notched at least 30 career homers: Quinn (71), Adams (44) and Blakestad (30). The ’24 team ranks fourth nationally in home runs behind only Kansas Wesleyan (124), Cumberlands of Kentucky (123) and Missouri Baptist (108).
· The Grand Forks, N.D., native Grabanski reached another milestone this past weekend when he recorded his 300th career hit. He’s just the second player in program history to achieve that feat, joining teammate Jay Adams, the school’s all-time record holder for games played (243), at bats (950), runs scored (280), hits (342) and doubles (69). As for Grabanski, he is chasing another NAIA career record. He’s now six RBI’s shy of the NAIA standard of 295 by Tim Leslie of Lubbock Christian (Texas). On the topic of career milestones, Quinn needs one RBI for 200 and five more hits for 200. In addition, Alec Blakestad (191 hits) and Ty Nekoliczak (187 hits) are also creeping up on 200 hits.
· In the absence of pitchers such as Blake Benson and Caden Bugarske, the Bulldogs have essentially gone to a three-man starting rotation featuring Christian Gutierrez (7-3, 3.86 ERA, 74.2 IP), Braxton Greenburg (3-1, 4.70 ERA, 46 IP) and Caden Johnson (7-2, 5.40 ERA, 60 IP). The Papillion, Neb., native Johnson has been especially good of late having allowed just three earned runs over his past three starts (20 innings). Johnson’s 10 strikeouts versus Midland were a season high. He moved into a tie for second on the program’s all-time wins list with 25. Gutierrez will have had four days rest by the time Tuesday rolls around. He leads the team with 74.2 innings pitched. Out of the bullpen, Concordia has leaned heavily upon Jacob Lycan (2.05 ERA in 16 appearances) and Maverick Wylder (4.26 ERA in 17 appearances).
· The Bulldogs own a 13-3 home record this season. In those 16 games, Concordia has batted .319 with a .443 on-base percentage and a .527 slugging percentage despite frequent cold and windy conditions. Grabanski has found Plum Creek Park to be especially friendly as he’s hit 10 home runs and driven in 28 runs (1.000 slugging percentage) at home. Meanwhile, opponents have hit .236 with a .335 on-base percentage and .325 slugging percentage (eight home runs) at Plum Creek Park. Two of the three home losses came the weekend of March 21-22 in cold weather games versus Northwestern. The other occurred this past week versus Midland.
· Dupic owns a career mark of 18-11 versus Doane (dating back to the 2015 season). That record had been 16-6 after the 2021 season. The Tigers then went 2-0 in 2022 and 3-0 in 2023 in matchups with the Bulldogs. Concordia got back on the winning side of the rivalry this season by sweeping Doane in Seward, triumphing by scores of 14-13 (8 inn.) and 7-6 on April 2. Adams delivered a walk-off base hit in the wild first game that saw the home team put six runs on the board in the sixth. In game two, the Bulldogs faced a 6-5 deficit in the bottom of the fifth when Jose Cevallos and Ty Nekoliczak supplied RBI singles to give Concordia the lead. Lycan then closed the game, stranding a runner at third. Each of the past three Bulldog-Tiger games have been decided by one-run margins.
Scouting Doane
Doane’s GPAC tournament path to the championship has mirrored that of Concordia. While hosting their side of the bracket, the second-seeded Tigers earned one-run wins over No. 7 seed Jamestown, 2-1, and No. 6 seed Northwestern, 5-4, before dropping an 8-6 decision to Jamestown. Doane rebounded with an 11-4 win over the Jimmies to emerge from its four-team pod. Head Coach Josh Oltmans’ program has won four-straight GPAC regular season titles (two shared with Concordia) in a memorable stretch. This year’s Tiger squad has been ranked as high as No. 9 in the NAIA coaches’ poll and currently sits at No. 13. Doane rolls out a well-balanced team that is averaging 7.0 runs per game while slashing .304/.409/.486 (BA/OBP/SLG). The pitching staff owns a 4.43 ERA and averages 8.11 strikeouts per nine innings. The lineup is led by 2022 GPAC Player of the Year Joe Osborn, who is hitting .348 with 12 home runs and 42 RBIs. Star pitcher Aaron Forrest (10-0, 2.61 ERA) owns an unblemished record. As announced on May 1, Doane will be the host of one of the 10 NAIA National Championship Opening Round sites. The site of Doane’s opening round will be Sherman Field in Lincoln, Neb.
NAIA National Championship Selection Show
Concordia and Doane will learn of their draws for the 2024 NAIA National Championship Opening Round via the NAIA Selection Show scheduled for 4 p.m. CT on Thursday (May 9). That show can be viewed by accessing the NAIA YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/PlayNAIA) at that date and time. Opening round host locations were announced by the NAIA on May 1 and can be found HERE. The opening round is slated to play out May 13-16 with the NAIA World Series to follow in Lewiston, Idaho, May 24-31.