ORANGE CITY, Iowa – The completion of a four-game series at Northwestern came on Monday (April 3) afternoon in a doubleheader that resembled the one played four days earlier in Orange City, Iowa. The Concordia University Baseball team settled for another split while falling by a 5-2 score in game one before blowing out the Red Raiders in game two, 10-1. As individual highlights of the day, Jesse Garcia homered in both ends of the twin bill and Caden Johnson fired six shutout frames in game two.
Head Coach Ryan Dupic’s squad split the four-gamer at Northwestern and will enter the upcoming weekend slate at 21-11 overall (7-3 GPAC).
“Their guy pitched well in game one and we didn’t get off to a good start,” Dupic said. “It was kind of the same situation (as this past Thursday). We hung around but fell behind by too much obviously. We played really well in the second game – Caden Johnson pitched a good ballgame. That was really good to see.”
Joey Grabanski has stolen plenty of headlines this season with his slugging prowess, but Jesse Garcia has put together quite a career himself in five seasons wearing the navy blue. He pummeled a three-run homer as part of a seven-run explosion for the Bulldogs in Monday’s second game. Garcia recorded a 3-for-7 day with two blasts and four RBIs. That production pulled the El Cajon, Calif., native even with Keaton Candor on the program’s all-time RBI list (188) while making him the second player in school history to reach 50 career home runs. Garcia (233 career hits) is one hit off the all-time program record of 234 by Zak Goodrich.
The game two run scoring was more like it for Concordia, which also got multiple hits from Tanner Tompkins (3-for-3), Ben Berg (2-for-4) and Jay Adams (2-for-5). In addition, Grabanski reached base four times and knocked in two runs with a base hit. It was more than enough to make a winner out of Johnson, who was a First Team All-GPAC honoree last season. The native of Papillion, Neb., worked around four hits and two walks (four strikeouts) in his six shutout frames.
Said Dupic of Johnson, “He had it all going today. He really commanded his fastball and mixed in his secondary pitches. He was really changing things up and had the breaking ball, changeup and fastball working. I thought Jesse Garcia had a really nice day and swung it really well.”
In Thursday’s first game (third game of the series), Concordia was forced to play catch up after Northwestern (13-17, 7-5 GPAC) put up a combined four runs over the first three innings. The Bulldogs attempted to chip away with a solo homer apiece from Garcia and Alec Blakestad, but they never were able to rally all the way back. The Millard, Neb., native Blakestad went 3-for-3 in game one.
The star of the day for the Red Raiders was pitcher Dylan Kirkeby, who logged six innings and allowed two runs on seven hits and a walk while fanning eight. Colby Shelton left the yard and Noa Vogel went 2-for-3 to lead a nine-hit Northwestern attack. The Red Raiders went up against Kellen Ingram (1 IP) and Christian Gutierrez (5 IP). Gutierrez limited the damage to two runs on his six hits and two walks.
A four-game home set with Dordt (13-11, 1-5 GPAC entering Monday) is up next. The Bulldogs will host the Defenders for 1 p.m. CT doubleheaders on both Friday and Saturday. The two sides played a four-game series last season in Sioux Center, Iowa, where Concordia earned a sweep.