FORT SCOTT, Kan. – In opening a four-game set with Culver-Stockton College (Mo.), the 21st-ranked Concordia University Baseball team continued to showcase its powerful lineup. The Bulldogs slugged seven homers on Saturday (Feb. 25) while winning by scores of 5-4 and 16-5 in contests played at LaRoche Baseball Complex in Fort Scott, Kan. Joey Grabanski went deep three times in the second game while Jesse Garcia homered once in both ends of the twin bill.
Head Coach Ryan Dupic’s squad has won five games in a row to move to 5-4 overall.
“We did a good job of that first game of getting a couple big swings to get ahead,” Dupic said. “We had to go to the ‘pen a little earlier than we thought and Christian Gutierrez did a nice job of getting us into the late innings. It got tight late, but we were able to hang on. In game two, our guys did really well offensively. Blake Benson threw a good game and we had a bunch of big swings. That obviously made a nice cushion for us.”
Things did indeed get tense in the seven-inning game one. Concordia got out to a 5-1 lead via a Garcia three-run homer in the bottom of the first and a two-out, two-run single by Ben Berg in the third. The Bulldogs were able to make those tallies stand up despite the push made by the Wildcats (4-8), who pushed across two runs in the fifth and one in the seventh. The game’s final out was recorded on the bases as Kellen Ingram earned credit for the save.
Game two did not have the same type of drama. The Bulldogs busted loose with four runs in the second inning and the rout was on from there. The Grand Forks, N.D., native Grabanski is locked in. He produced a solo shot in the third, a three-run blast in the fourth and then a two-run bomb to top it off in the bottom of the seventh. His final homer enacted the 10-run rule after seven innings. Three of his teammates also went deep in the victory – Berg (two-run HR) in the second, Alec Blakestad (solo HR) in the third and Garcia (solo HR) in the fourth. Concordia paraded around the bases in game two with the help of 16 hits and four walks.
Grabanski (43) and Garcia (41) both pushed their career homer totals above 40 as part of the outburst. Grabanski has already belted eight homers in nine games this season. He also has recorded two three-homer games during the season’s opening three weeks.
Said Dupic, “He’s been swinging it great. He played a ton this past summer in the Northwoods League, which is a really good competitive league. He’s gotten so many at bats over the last calendar year that he’s seeing it well and feeling really comfortable in the box.”
Transfer pitcher Blake Benson was the beneficiary of that run support in the second game. He fired six innings and allowed three runs on six hits (no walks) to go along with nine strikeouts. He earned his first win as a Bulldog. In the first game, Gutierrez was credited with the win after he threw 3.1 innings in relief of Alex Johnson. The team’s ace, Johnson was removed after 1.2 innings as a precaution.
As for the offensive attack, Grabanski and Berg led the way with four hits apiece for the day. Grabanski drove in six runs, Berg knocked in five and Garcia sent four teammates to the plate. In addition, Blakestad and Ty Nekoliczak both went 3-for-7 on the day and Michael Buckendahl went 2-for-3 with three runs scored in the second game.
The same two teams will go head-to-head at the same location again on Sunday. First pitch of the doubleheader is slated for 11 a.m. CT (instead of the originally scheduled start time of 1 p.m.). Just like Saturday’s twin bill, the format will be one seven and then one nine-inning game.
To the moon. https://t.co/d6CoPu8XII pic.twitter.com/mNX2Q8q5aj
— Caleb Lang (@CalebLang22) February 25, 2023