SEWARD, Neb. – Prolific offensive production has come to be expected these days for the 20th-ranked Concordia University Baseball team, which has flown past 50 home runs for the season. The Bulldogs went deep four more times on Sunday (April 11) while pounding out 32 hits in a doubleheader sweep of Briar Cliff at Plum Creek Park. Not only that, Jake Fosgett dazzled on the mound in an 18-0 white-washing in game 1. Concordia rallied to win game 2, 13-10.
Just over halfway through the GPAC regular season, Head Coach Ryan Dupic’s squad has pulled even with Doane atop the standings. The Bulldogs (26-5, 13-3 GPAC) won three out of four this weekend from the Chargers.
“Very proud of our guys offensively,” Dupic said. “We got into a situation in game 1 where we were able to stretch out a big lead and make things more comfortable. Game 2 got off to a terrific start and obviously we gave that up, but our guys do a great job staying with it. In the middle of the game I was not pleased with that and they responded. I was very happy with the way we approached things the last couple innings.”
There was very little drama in the first three games of the series, but that changed in the finale. After having led 4-0 out of the gate, Concordia fell behind, 9-7, heading into the bottom of the eighth. Pinch hitter Jacob Faulk swung the outcome with a pinch-hit, two-run homer to right center to tie it up, 9-9. Later in the inning, Keaton Candor supplied a two-run, go-ahead single and Joey Grabanski doubled home another run. Nathan Buckallew earned the win while throwing the final two innings.
Candor is white-hot at the plate. He went a combined 6-for-9 with a double and seven RBIs on Sunday. Meanwhile, four Bulldogs clubbed one homer apiece: Ben Berg, Joey Grabanski, Beau Dorman and Faulk. Grabanski totaled six RBIs on Sunday as one of five Concordia batsmen with at least three hits in the doubleheader. This is a team built to mash.
“The last game was a little closer than we wanted going in late,” Candor said. “It’s good to be in a few of those games and see what we can do during crunch time. We have a lot of guys who can come off the bench and get a knock, like Jakob Faulk did tonight. It’s pretty good having that depth.”
When he’s commanding his pitches, Fosgett can be absolutely unhittable. In five innings of work in Sunday’s opener, the senior from Carlsbad, Calif., allowed just one hit without a walk and recorded 10 strikeouts. There was no need to push him beyond five innings when the lead ballooned to 18. Cale Mathison tossed zeroes up in the sixth and the seventh frames.
It's far from unusual for the fourth game of a weekend series to become a slugfest. The Bulldogs went through six pitchers in game 2 while attempting to slow down the Chargers (23-12, 7-9 GPAC), who have a capable offense of their own. Jared Sitzmann went 4-for-6 with three runs, a home run and two RBIs out of the leadoff spot. Briar Cliff racked up 11 hits in the second game after being held to just two in game 1.
Between games of the twin bill, Concordia celebrated a group of 13 seniors, including five who returned this season for a fifth year of college baseball. Many of those seniors were instrumental in the program winning GPAC regular season titles in 2017 and 2019. The 2021 squad has hopes of achieving the same.
Said Dupic, “We’ve found a way to win games. I’m really pleased with that. I’m not satisfied with our approach to the game. We talked about that a little bit afterwards. I think we can be more consistent in that. I hope this has an opportunity to be a springboard for us as we move forward.”
A four-game series on the road is coming up next Thursday-Friday when the Bulldogs will be at Northwestern (14-18, 7-9 GPAC) for doubleheaders both days. The Red Raiders were the champions of the GPAC regular season and postseason in 2018.