LAKE WALES, Fla. – In a matchup between Concordias, the one located in Seward got the best of the one that calls Ann Arbor, Mich., home. A day after struggling offensively, the Bulldogs returned to form while defeating Concordia Ann Arbor, 15-7, on Saturday (March 12) in the finale of the spring break trip in central Florida. This particular contest was played at Lake Wales High School in Lake Wales, Fla., the same park where Concordia slugged a combined 14 home runs on Thursday.
Head Coach Ryan Dupic’s squad went 6-4 during action in The Sunshine State and now stands at 11-6-1 overall on the season. The latest win came over a strong Cardinal program that won 38 games in 2021.
“It’s a good place for us to hit. It plays to our strengths pretty well,” said Dupic of the venue. “It’s been a long weekend for both teams so both sides were a little run down pitching-wise. It made for some favorable offensive matchups. Our guys did a good job taking advantage of that and getting some good swings to give us a big cushion there late.”
The Bulldogs produced 12 hits and worked nine walks on Saturday while parading around the bases. Joey Grabanski homered in both the first and third innings (fifth and sixth of the season) as part of a four-RBI performance. Jakob Faulk also belted a two-run homer in the fifth as the game got out of reach. Another big blow to CUAA was Jay Adams’ bases-clearing double in the third.
Tanner Tompkins (3-for-4, run, double, RBI) led the CUNE attack with three hits. Four Bulldogs collected exactly two hits: Adams (2-for-3 with two walks), Faulk (2-for-3, three RBIs), Grabanski (2-for-4) and Alec Blakestad (2-for-4, two runs, double, two RBIs). In addition, Keaton Candor took three walks and scored three times.
CUAA (14-7) made a game of it early when it struck for four runs in the third via Justin Kozlowski’s grand slam. The Cardinals just didn’t have much success on the pitching rubber while using five different hurlers on the day.
On the other side, CUNE navigated the seven-inning contest with the help of four pitchers. In relief, Christian Gutierrez picked up the win. Ben Coldiron, Andrew Bohrer and Shane Whittaker were also called upon. Whittaker retired all four hitters he faced, three by strikeout.
In sum, the Bulldogs believe they are in a pretty good place heading into conference play. Said Dupic, “We know a lot more about our team than we did when we came here. We played 10 games and played against some really good teams. There were times we had to come from behind and times we scored a lot and didn’t score a lot. There were a lot of different styles of games. I’m hoping we can learn from this experience from our time down here and have some momentum heading into the conference season.”
If all goes as planned, the Bulldogs will open GPAC play at home next weekend (March 19-20) with Dakota Wesleyan and Hastings set to visit Plum Creek Park. The last time Concordia played at home, it celebrated a GPAC tournament championship game victory over Doane. Barring any changes, the remainder of the regular season slate will be made up exclusively of conference games.