SEWARD, Neb. – A late change of venue was just fine with the Concordia University Baseball team, which used the friendly confines of Plum Creek Park to its advantage on a chilly but sunny Tuesday (March 28) afternoon in Seward. The Bulldogs scored a combined 18 runs in the third innings of a doubleheader sweep of Hastings. The men wearing navy jerseys combined for six home runs and a total of 14 extra-base hits while taking care of the Broncos, 13-1 and 11-5. Ben Berg homered twice in game two and Ty Nekoliczak left the yard for the first time in his life.
Originally, Head Coach Ryan Dupic’s squad was slated to play Tuesday in Hastings. Snow overnight in Hastings resulted in the switch. Concordia is now 4-0 at home and stands at 19-9 overall (5-1 GPAC).
“I thought first game our guys made good adjustments,” Dupic said. “Their guy did a nice job keeping us off balance early. We did a good job of having team at bats, not expanding too much and making sure they got their pitches. We really got things going. The second game, I thought we were pretty good every inning (offensively). We put ourselves in good position early on in both of those games with big innings.”
As a sign of how things went on Tuesday, Joey Grabanski had already doubled three times in game one before the eighth and ninth hitters in the Hastings lineup came to the plate. It almost feels so automatic that it would be easy to take it for granted. The Bulldog powder keg of an offense just keeps churning out big numbers. Bronco pitchers watched homers soar from the likes of (in order) Jaidan Quinn, Jesse Garcia, Tanner Tompkins, Berg, Nekoliczak and then Berg again.
Concordia got all the runs it needed with eye-popping third innings. The Bulldogs sent 16 hitters to the plate in the third inning of game one (resulting in 11 runs) and then trotted 12 more batters to the plate in the third inning of game two (resulting in seven runs). By day’s end, there were nine Concordia players to collect at least two hits. As part of his power surge, Berg drove in a team high six runs. In addition, Teyt Johnson stayed red hot as he went 3-for-7 with a pair of doubles.
There are no breaks in this Bulldog lineup. The highest batting average on the team (.404) is owned by the No. 9 hitter in Nekoliczak. Said Dupic, “Ty’s been good all year and Ben and Teyt had a big games just a couple days ago. The depth of our lineup is a big deal. We know those guys at the top can really swing it, but our ability to lengthen things really makes it tough on the opposition.”
Added Nekoliczak, “We like to stay process-oriented no matter who we’re playing. We make sure that’s a thing no matter what game. Sometimes we might have to see a pitcher through the lineup and then adjust. We made some good adjustments throughout the day.”
The pitching seemingly always gets overshadowed, but the starting combo of Caden Johnson and Christian Gutierrez got fine results on Tuesday. Johnson threw game one and covered five innings, allowing one run on three hits and three walks to go along with three strikeouts. Ernie Snyder then went two scoreless frames out of the bullpen. In game two, Gutierrez spun his way through six innings and limited the damage to two runs on seven hits and no walks (two strikeouts). The only downside was a series of defensive gaffes in the final inning of game two. Those errors let three unearned runs come across for Hastings.
The Broncos (8-18, 2-4 GPAC) are in the process of building their program back up after finishing at the bottom of the GPAC in 2022. Hastings got a home run from Eli Merritt in game one. The most successful pitcher for the Broncos was Alec Fichter, who fired 2.1 scoreless innings out of the bullpen in game two.
Concordia will have two days off from game action before beginning a four-game series at Northwestern (11-15, 5-3 GPAC). The two sides are slated to play doubleheaders in Orange City, Iowa, at 4 p.m. CT on Friday and at 2 p.m. on Saturday. The Bulldogs and Red Raiders played each other seven times in 2022 with Concordia winning five of those matchups.
| Check out all SIX home runs hit by @cunebaseball in today's doubleheader sweep of Hastings. pic.twitter.com/oixp4IUoN4
— Concordia Bulldogs (@cunebulldogs) March 29, 2023