By Sam Firminhac, Athletic Communications
SIOUX CITY, Iowa – The Concordia University Baseball team split its final regular season doubleheader of the year on Friday (April 29) while on the road at Briar Cliff. The first game was a low-scoring pitcher’s duel where two RBIs from senior Keaton Candor were all the Bulldogs needed in the 2-1 victory. The Briar Cliff offense came alive in game two, putting up eight runs which, proving too much for Concordia to overcome in an 8-4 defeat.
Head Coach Ryan Dupics's squad finishes up the regular season at 31-14-1. Their conference record of 20-8 was enough for the Bulldogs secure the No. 2 seed in the GPAC tournament, which begins next week.
“I’m glad we got the two seed,” Dupic said. “From a percentage basis, it puts us in a better possible position to make the national tournament. I’m glad we’re able to be at home for the conference tournament. Our team has seen some real highs at times this year and we’re looking forward to postseason play. I think we’re getting a little bit closer in terms of playing at our best. We sometimes have an inning here or there that gets away from us, but we’re ready for postseason play.”
Freshman Christian Gutierrez threw a gem in the first game of the day. He almost went the distance, throwing 6.2 innings, allowing three hits and one earned run. Gutierrez struck out four in the outing. He now moved to 6-1 on the season. Jacob Lycan came onto record the final out of the ballgame and picked up the save.
Candor provided most of the offense for the Bulldogs in game one with a solo home run and an RBI single. Candor had three hits in the game. The native of Merrill, Iowa, now owns the second most hits in program history with 219. Jayden Adams had four hits on the day, including an RBI in game two. Jaidan Quinn enjoyed a three-hit day that included his team-leading 13th and 14th home runs of the season. Ben Berg picked up an RBI on a double in the second game.
Caden Bugarske got the start for game two. He went five innings while only allowing three hits and two earned runs. He struck out seven and only walked one. Darrell Kundinger came on in relief and allowed five earned runs. Dan Rivera put in 2.2 innings of relief work, only allowing one earned run. Kundinger was charged with the loss.
Said Dupic, “We’ll figure out our roster first (for the postseason). This weekend will be a nice opportunity for us to recharge physically and get ourselves feeling well. We have a couple guys we have to check on. It’ll be a good chance to regroup and then get back at it on Monday and see what we need to work on for a couple days.”
Briar Cliff finished the regular season at 27-19 overall (15-13 GPAC). The Chargers got two solid starts on Friday. Ace Jacob Wesselman was tagged with a loss despite allowing just two runs in a seven-inning complete game. The Chargers will be the No. 6 seed in the GPAC tournament.
Concordia will now get set to host one of the two GPAC tournament pods. Pod play will run May 5-7. The winner of the pod will move on to play in the GPAC Championship game which will be hosted by the highest remaining seed. The championship game will be played on May 10.