FREMONT, Neb. – Concordia’s season came to a close Saturday afternoon. The Bulldogs dropped two games to Midland University in the championship of Midland’s bracket of the GPAC tournament. The first game was decided by a 7-4 score while the second, going into 11 innings, ended 6-5.
Concordia ends the season 28-27 overall. Midland, seeded first in the league tourney improves to 41-17-1.
Head coach Ryan Dupic said, “I’m very proud of the team. It’s always tough when it finishes like that. I’m very happy for the guys to be able to compete in an environment like that. I’m very proud of them on how they competed and stayed with things. They executed a lot of things that we wanted to, not only in terms of baseball but being good competitors and high character kids.”
The Bulldogs led off the first game with a massive three-run home run from Christian Montero in the first inning. Midland chipped away at Concordia’s lead score one run in the third before Alex Alstott answered back in the next half inning. After three frames, the Bulldogs led 4-1. The Warriors took the lead in the fourth and kept it throughout the rest of the tilt.
Neil Ryan started on the mound and pitched 3.2 innings and struck out two batters. Nic Seaman took over, throwing for 3.1 frames before Todd Oberthien finished out the game. Oberthein struck out two batters and let up just one hit through two innings.
The second game of the day took two extra innings to decide the winner. Heading into the top of the sixth, Concordia trailed 5-2. Alstott knocked a homer over the right center field fence. Kaleb Geiger hit a single to left to bring Christian Montero to the plate. Montero hit a towering homerun to tie the game up at five all. This score remained through the following solid defensive innings.
Concordia left two runners on in the top of the 10th and 11th frames and could not plate a run. The bottom part of the last inning saw the Warriors victory after bases were loaded with one out. Midland’s Corey Gray scored the winning run.
The 11 inning affair began with Taylor Bickel on the mound who pitched 4.1 innings. Tanner Wauhob pitched for the second time in the tournament and had a solid 3.1 inning outing. The freshman struck out two batters while allowing two hits and no runs. Oberthien made an appearance for the second time in the day, and again sat down two Warriors. Josue Melchor finished out the game for the Bulldogs.
The Bulldogs broke another program record during the two-game day. With Alstott’s solo shot in the second game, the record for home runs in a single season was broken. Montero’s bomb set the season record at 38 home runs.