SEWARD, Neb. – The Jaidan Quinn show continued in a Sunday (April 23) matinee as the 24th-ranked Concordia University Baseball team earned a four-game sweep of Midland. The Bulldogs closed out the dominant four-game set by winning at home, 7-6 and 26-2, while celebrating a group of five seniors. One day after a historic four-homer game, Quinn crushed two more long balls and reached base in seven of his eight plate appearances. Quinn and company produced 35 hits on the day.
Head Coach Ryan Dupic’s squad remains undefeated at home (12-0) while moving to 33-13 overall (19-5 GPAC). The Bulldogs will enter the final week of the regular season tied atop the league standings with Doane.
“It’s fun to celebrate senior day. It’s fun to see the players and their families,” Dupic said. “It’s a sense of reflection on how much time they’ve been here and their commitment to the program. It’s been baseball for a long time for those kids. It’s something really special. I thought the guys did a great job. Our offense was really good all weekend. I thought we pitched and defended really well at times. When we do that, we’re a really good team.”
The Bonner Springs, Kan., native Quinn is seeing grapefruits at the plate. Quinn wowed the crowd at Plum Creek Park by lifting the ball over the wall (to right and then right center) in two of his first three at bats. For the series, the slugging third baseman went 10-for-14 (.714) with a double, six home runs, 10 RBIs and 29 total bases. In Joey Grabanski (23) and Quinn (22), Concordia has two players with 20+ home runs on the season (both rank amongst the top four nationally in that category).
Quinn has hammered 41 home runs over his two seasons at Concordia. He didn’t start 2023 the way he wanted, but he’s closing the regular season with a bang. Said Quinn of his feat on Saturday, “It’s just surreal. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that happen. It was just a surreal moment. I was glad I was able to do it for my team. Everyone stuck behind me and just believed every day. Now it’s coming to light.”
Three of the four games with Midland were complete white washings, but game three had some tense moments. Despite the two homers from Quinn, and a two-run homer apiece by Teyt Johnson and Alec Blakestad, the Warriors hung in there. They put two runs up in the fifth to make it a one-run ballgame. One of the seniors who was recognized, Dan Rivera put the fire out and worked an impeccable 2.1 innings of relief. He recorded five strikeouts while notching the game’s final seven outs.
Game two quickly became a rout as the Bulldogs led 10-0 after two innings and 15-0 after three innings. Concordia wore out the base paths with 24 hits (none over the fence), including 18 singles and six doubles. Ty Nekoliczak went 4-for-4 with three RBIs in game two. In addition, Jay Adams, Blakestad and Grabanski tallied three hits apiece. Jesse Garcia and Johnson both drove in four runs. Both teams cycled through five pitchers in the series capper.
On the day, Blakestad, Grabanski, Nekoliczak and Quinn each registered five hits. In the series as a whole, the Bulldogs outscored Midland, 67-16, while batting .463 with a .523 on-base percentage and an .589 slugging percentage. Concordia outhomered the Warriors, 16-1, in the series.
Both Bulldog starting pitchers factored into the decisions on Sunday. Caden Johnson managed his way through four innings (two earned runs allowed) in game one and Blake Benson then covered four frames in game two. Defensively, Concordia committed just one error on the day.
Between ends of the twin bill, the Bulldogs celebrated a senior class that includes Ben Berg, Ben Coldiron, Jesse Garcia, Teyt Johnson and Daniel Rivera. Berg, Garcia and Johnson are each fifth-year members of the program. The senior class has helped the program to its most successful season ever, including the 2021 NAIA World Series campaign.
Concordia will attempt to achieve a perfect regular season home record next weekend (April 28-29) when it will host Morningside (30-12, 16-6 GPAC) for a four-game set at Plum Creek Park. Game times for the doubleheaders are set for 4 p.m. CT on Friday and 1 p.m. on Saturday.
Said Dupic, “I’m know the guys are well aware of it (what’s at stake). It hasn’t been a point of discussion because I feel like we should be giving our best effort and having a good approach regardless of the situation. I think the guys are aware of where we’re at in the season and what’s on the line. We have to go play as well as we can play.”