SEWARD, Neb. – While donning appropriate warmup shirts that read, “Wake and Rake University,” the 20th-ranked Concordia University Baseball team again won a morning postseason contest in convincing fashion. Ben Berg and Jose Cevallos collected four hits apiece as the Bulldogs pummeled Briar Cliff, 10-1, at Plum Creek Park on Saturday (May 8). The victory has pushed Concordia into the GPAC postseason championship game for the third time in four seasons.
Head Coach Ryan Dupic’s squad (37-9) won convincingly throughout the Concordia Bracket, taking decisions by scores of 13-6 over Hastings and 9-1 and 10-1 over Briar Cliff. This was a fine way for Dupic to celebrate his birthday on Saturday.
“It’s probably the best baseball we’ve played in terms of all the facets of the game, in a while, if not this year,” said Dupic of the past three days. “I’m really pleased with the position guys today. Their guy was really good. He came out sharp and throwing the baseball well. Our guys stuck with it and grinded through it and were able to get things going in the middle of the game. I’m very proud of Trent Wood. It’s nice to see him get a good start leading into nationals.”
The Chargers (34-20) had already thrown their top three starting pitchers this week, so they turned the ball over to Kyler Steinborn, who showcased swing-and-miss stuff. He struck out 11 Bulldogs in his five innings of work. It’s just not so easy to hold Concordia down. Berg struck for a two-run single in the fourth to break the scoreless draw. An inning later, Joey Grabanski lofted a two-run double to deep left to make it 4-0.
The Wake and Rake Bulldogs piled on in the ninth thanks to one RBI apiece from Berg (single), Teyt Johnson (bases-loaded walk), Cevallos (single) and Jayden Adams (fielder’s choice). Concordia wound up seeing three more Briar Cliff pitchers after Steinborn left in the sixth with an apparent injury. The Charger bullpen was tagged with nine of the 14 hits pounded out by the Bulldogs.
Meanwhile, Wood (6-1) enjoyed his best outing since March. After a shaky first inning that included a pair of walks, the Troy, Ohio, native settled in and fired six scoreless frames. Wood allowed three hits and three walks while recording six strikeouts. Jacob Lycan (2 IP) and Nathan Buckallew (1 IP) covered the final three innings. Even without ace Jake Fosgett this week, Concordia pitchers rose to the occasion.
Berg has sizzled in the GPAC tournament, going a combined 8-for-13 over the three wins. He can explain the ‘Wake and Rake’ mantra further. Said Berg, “It’s been a ton of fun. We’ve played a couple early morning games the last couple days. Just getting out waking and raking has been fun. We have so much depth up and down the lineup. One through nine we’ve just been hitting the ball really hard and putting together good AB’s.”
On this team, different players really do take turns in the spotlight. Johnson clubbed two homers and drove in eight runs in the matchup with Hastings on Thursday. Then on Friday, Jesse Garcia set the tone with a three-run homer in the first inning. The contributions of Cevallos at shortstop should also be applauded. He’s recorded seven hits in the GPAC tournament. Said Dupic, “He’s a key piece of this team. Your shortstop needs to be a good player and somebody you can trust.”
Out of the No. 4 spot in the lineup, Keaton Candor added two hits and a run on Saturday. Garcia doubled and scored two runs and Jakob Faulk chipped in with an RBI single. Adams posted one hit, one run and one RBI.
As the GPAC’s top seed, the Bulldogs will host Doane (35-16-1) at 6 p.m. CT on Tuesday in the GPAC championship game. It will be a matchup of rivals that shared the conference regular season title. Both teams have clinched bids to the NAIA National Championship Opening Round.
Said Dupic, “They’re very good. We’ll have to play well. They are very good offensively, lot of athleticism and good on the mound. They just do a nice job across the board.”