Concordia drubs Manhattan Christian by combined 42-0 score

MANHATTAN, Kan. – The Concordia University baseball team improved to 16-6 outside of conference play by hanging a pair of lopsided decisions on host Manhattan Christian College in Manhattan, Kan., on Tuesday afternoon. The Bulldogs won by games by identical scores of 21-0 while piling up a combined 34 hits and 21 stolen bases in the road doubleheader.

First-year head coach Ryan Dupic’s squad has already surpassed its win total from the 2014 win season when Concordia went 16-30 overall. The 2015 Bulldogs are off to an 18-8 start.

“We took care of business,” Dupic said. “We felt like it was a doubleheader where we had a little more talent than the other team. We wanted to focus on ourselves and play good baseball. We played well defensively, threw strikes and obviously created a lot of runs. Our main focus was to be better defensively and we did that.”

In the game 1 victory, Concordia notched 13 hits. Sophomore catcher Ryan Fesmire and senior outfielder Daniel Wilkerson belted a home run apiece as part of the blowout. Wilkerson was also one of five Bulldogs with three hits or more in the second game. The others were Kaleb Geiger (four hits), Casey Berg (three hits), Sean McCartney (three hits) and AJ Peterson (three hits).

On the mound, game 1 starter Josh Prater covered four shutout frames. Dupic then went to senior Heath Benker for two innings and senior Edwin Izumigawa for one. In the second contest, freshman Wyatt Weller made his first career start on the hill and worked two innings. Dupic used five different relievers for an inning each to span the last five innings.

The Thunder, a member of the National Christian College Athletic Association, fell to 0-26.

The Bulldogs jump back into GPAC play on Friday when they head east to play rival Nebraska Wesleyan (6-13, 2-2 GPAC). The twin bill is set for 1 p.m. from Lincoln, Neb. The next day Concordia will host Hastings (13-11, 2-2 GPAC) in another 1 p.m. doubleheader.