CRETE, Neb. – No matter the wind direction, the Concordia University, Nebraska Baseball team kept sending baseballs flying over the wall throughout the four-game series played at the Doane Ballfield Complex. The 22nd-ranked Bulldogs made an early statement by winning three of four in Crete in a matchup between the league’s two highest rated squads. In action on Sunday (March 23), Concordia won by scores of 14-7 and 10-0 while clubbing eight home runs and getting a dominant pitching performance from veteran righty Braxton Greenburg.
Head Coach Ryan Dupic’s squad improved to 18-8 overall (6-2 GPAC). The Bulldogs won the final three games in Crete by a combined score of 33-11. Dating back to last season, Concordia has won six of the last seven versus the Tigers.
“The guys played really well,” Dupic said. “Coach (Ben) Berg had a really good plan and even more importantly, the guys executed it well. I thought offensively the guys were great. They did a really good job on a day like today. We made them throw pitches in the zone and then put some good swings on them. Terrific job offensively. It was a tough day to pitch today with the wind blowing out.”
While the lineup flexed its muscles on Sunday in tagging Doane’s two starting pitchers for a combined 14 runs, Greenburg stifled the opposition with the best performance of his Concordia career. The Plymouth, Minn., native and Mayville State University (N.D.) transfer logged 7.2 innings in the series finale. Greenburg piled up a career-high 13 strikeouts and held the mesmerized Tigers to two hits (no walks). Of the 23 outs Greenburg recorded, only two of them were in the air on a day when the wind provided a lift to balls hit to center.
Greenburg set Doane down in order in the third, fourth and seventh innings and retired nine-straight hitters in the middle innings. He was lifted with two outs in the eighth after throwing 109 pitches in a sparkling outing. Said Dupic, “Braxton was great. He threw really, really well.”
On the other side of things, the Bulldogs wore out Tiger pitching in games two through four of the series. Over the four games as whole, Concordia homered a total of 13 times and drew 34 walks for an eye-popping OPS of 1.116. In Sunday’s action alone, corner infielders Jaidan Quinn and Matt Rhoades left the yard twice apiece while four teammates homered once each: Jimmy Blumberg, Brad Hallock, Ty Nekoliczak and Michael Welch. Rhoades drove in six runs in Sunday’s first game.
In other superlatives, Hallock enjoyed a monster four-game series as he went 7-for-16 (.438) with two doubles, four home runs and seven RBIs. The All-American Quinn slugged three homers for the weekend and pushed his tallies to 12 on the season and 85 for his career. When things began to get tight in game three of the series, the Bulldog offense went to work with a four-run seventh that included a homer from Rhoades and a two-run double from Nekoliczak. Their efforts propped the lead back up to seven runs (14-7).
Said Dupic, “I’m very pleased with where we’re at. It showed that we have good depth. As the weekend went along, we didn’t drop off whether it was offensively or on the mound. That’s a big key. I thought we got four good starts. That’s a really tough thing to do. Doane has a really good club. It was an offensive day today, and we did a nice job executing.”
Doane entered the weekend ranked 19th in the media poll released by @NAIABall. After the Tigers got a stellar outing from ace Kaden Crawford in Saturday’s first game, Concordia’s offense took over. Doane (17-6, 4-4 GPAC) got two hits, including a home run, from Aaron Vulcano in Sunday’s opener. On the mound, Broc Songster and Raidyn Steele allowed a combined 14 earned runs with 10 free passes issued.
Meanwhile, Dupic called upon five pitchers throughout the day. Freshman Micah Sweeton started series game three and covered five innings with five runs surrendered on nine hits and two walks (five strikeouts). Dupic noted that Sweeton threw better than what the stat line indicated. Daiten Schmidt notched the final four outs and picked up the save. In series game four, Sam Rambajan relieved Greenburg and threw 1.1 scoreless innings with three strikeouts. Bulldog pitching racked up 40 strikeouts in the series.
After eight in row on the road to begin league play, the Bulldogs are scheduled to play their next six games at Plum Creek Park. The season’s first home doubleheader is slated for Friday, March 28 when new GPAC member Waldorf (9-15, 5-3 GPAC) will be in town for a 3 p.m. CT first pitch. In this weekend’s action, the Warriors split doubleheaders with both Mount Marty and Midland.