SEWARD, Neb. – Plum Creek Park will once again serve as a host venue for GPAC tournament pod play. The 24th-ranked Concordia University Baseball team emerged from a four-game home series versus Morningside with a split. In warmer and windier conditions on Saturday (April 29), the Bulldogs won game three of the series, 11-4, before dropping the fourth, 7-5. Fifth-year catcher Ben Berg enjoyed a red-hot weekend that was capped with six hits on Saturday.
Head Coach Ryan Dupic’s squad is now locked into the No. 2 seed for the GPAC tournament. Concordia has concluded the regular season at 35-15 overall (21-7 GPAC).
“I thought it was a good series. Both teams played pretty well,” Dupic said. “I was glad we were able to get out and get that first one. Blake Benson did a nice job coming on (in game one) and our guys did a nice job offensively. We were pretty competitive in game two – just had an inning get away from us. We’re playing pretty good baseball, and we’re looking forward to the next part of the year.”
The Bulldogs took it to the Mustangs in games one and three of the series. Saturday’s first game got out of hand in the fourth inning when Concordia plated five runs with the help of run-scoring hits by Jesse Garcia (two-run single) and Alec Blakestad (RBI double) and via ground outs from Berg and Ty Nekoliczak. By the end of the fourth, the lead ballooned to 10-3. The run support made a winner out of Benson, who fired 4.2 innings in relief of Caden Bugarske. Benson struck out six Morningside hitters while earning his sixth win of the season.
Berg wore out the Mustangs all weekend. He delivered a two-run homer and an RBI double as part of 3-for-4, four-RBI performance in game three of the series. In game four, the Carroll, Iowa, native added three more hits and an RBI. He batted .643 (9-for-14) with a homer and eight RBIs on the weekend. Other Concordia players with two or more hits in Saturday’s victory were Blakestad (3-for-4 with three doubles, three runs and two RBIs), Jaidan Quinn (2-for-3 with two runs) and Nekoliczak (2-for-4 with two RBIs).
The series finale was there for the taking, but Morningside (34-14, 20-8 GPAC) took the lead with three runs apiece in the fourth and fifth innings. The 6-5 advantage held up as Aiden Bishop, Josh Pratt and Logan Warkentin combined to shut the Bulldogs out over the game’s final five innings. Cade Nolan added an insurance run in the top of the ninth with a home run down the right field line. Concordia used four different pitchers: Qwin Zabokrtsky, Ernie Snyder, Jacob Lycan and Daniel Rivera. Lycan went 2.1 scoreless frames with four strikeouts.
The Mustangs were the only team to defeat the Bulldogs at Plum Creek Park during the regular season. The conditions (along with Morningside’s pitching) played a role in Concordia being limited to two home runs total for the series. Joey Grabanski went deep once on Friday and broke his own school record for RBIs in a single season (currently has 69).
The Bulldogs will be able to remain cozy at home as they look forward to hosting GPAC tournament action beginning this coming Thursday. It’s become the norm for Dupic’s high achieving program.
Said Dupic, “I’m really happy to be at home. I’d rather play at home as much as we can and glad we’ll have a chance to do that. Offensively, we swing it well so I think we can be a challenge to pitch to as the tournament goes on. We have a lot of arms, but we obviously have to get some consistency from that. It’s really on us. We just have to go play well, be crisp and play the way we’re capable of.”
GPAC tournament pod play is up next. Having earned one of the top two seeds, the Bulldogs will host a four-team pod at Plum Creek Park May 4-6. Official pairings will be released by the GPAC when all regular season games are complete. Concordia also hosted GPAC tournament action in 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2022.