BELLEVUE, Neb. – It was too late once the 19th-ranked Concordia University Baseball team stopped the bleeding on Tuesday (May 18). Two-run frames in the first, second and third staked bracket host Bellevue University to a lead it would not relinquish on the second day of action at the NAIA National Championship Opening Round. The fourth-seeded Bruins are now 2-0 in the bracket after topping the Bulldogs, 7-3, at Don Roddy Field.
Head Coach Ryan Dupic’s squad missed an opportunity to get within one win of advancing to the NAIA World Series. Concordia (39-10) will have to fight its way back in an elimination game on Wednesday.
“We didn’t play well enough as a team, in several facets,” Dupic said. “We got off to a rough start and that dug us into a pretty steep hole. We felt like when we got those three runs in the third it would get some momentum going. We were able to get some zeroes after that – Caden (Bugarske) pitched really well. They just played better today.”
The work out of the bullpen of Bugarske gave the Bulldogs a chance in Tuesday’s in-state battle. Bugarske allowed just one run on four hits (no walks) over five innings of relief. At one point, Bugarske set down 11 hitters in a row. The combination of Shane Whittaker (1.2 IP) and Nathan Buckallew (0.1 IP) then held the Bruins off the scoreboard over the eighth and ninth innings. Trent Wood had been chased from the game in the third inning. He surrendered a pair of two-run homers, although one of those occurred after an inning was extended by an error.
The Concordia bullpen has been a major plus in postseason play. Bugarske has been particularly impressive having allowed only one run in 11 postseason innings (between the GPAC and opening round tournaments). Jake Fosgett and Buckallew also worked out of the bullpen on Monday.
On the flip side, Bellevue pitcher Graham Cahill did a fine job of limiting the potent Concordia offense. The Bulldogs got all of their runs in the bottom of the third courtesy of Beau Dorman’s two-run double and Joey Grabanski’s RBI single. The rally had started with a Jose Cevallos single and Jayden Adams walk. Dorman enjoyed a 3-for-4 performance out of the No. 2 spot in the lineup.
Only one run was tallied after the third inning. Bellevue (41-16) picked up an insurance run on Cody Banks’ RBI double in the seventh. The Bulldogs managed to put runners at second and third in the bottom of the seventh, but failed to score. Concordia then went down 1-2-3 in the eighth and ninth innings.
Adams collected two hits (including a double), a run and a walk. The Waverly, Neb., native pushed his season hit total to 74, setting a new program standard that was previously held by Casey Berg (72 hits in 2017). Cevallos also notched two hits and scored a run.
The Bruins have put themselves in good position having also defeated ninth-ranked University of Science & Arts of Oklahoma on Monday. The Bellevue long balls on Tuesday came courtesy of Josh Vaughan and Rigo Duarte.
The Bulldogs will play at 11 a.m. CT on Wednesday in a Bellevue Bracket elimination game. Concordia will draw the winner between Science & Arts and No. 21 MidAmerica Nazarene University (Kan.). The victor of the 11 a.m. contest would then need to defeat Bellevue twice in order to qualify for the NAIA World Series.