HASTINGS, Neb. – Members of the 20th-ranked Concordia University Baseball team know what’s at stake this weekend, but they are going about a pivotal stretch as if it’s business as usual. In a return to action on Friday (April 30), the Bulldogs rode fine pitching performances from Jake Fosgett and Nick Little to a doubleheader sweep of Hastings at Duncan Field. Concordia won by scores of 3-0 and 11-6 with the aid of a four-hit day from Jayden Adams.
Head Coach Ryan Dupic’s squad hopes to seal up the GPAC regular season title this weekend. At 20-6 in league play (33-8 overall), the Bulldogs are one game up on Doane (17-7) in the loss column.
“I don’t think we were too much different in our approach this weekend,” Dupic said. “We’re just trying to play as well as we can and I see us doing some good things at times. We still need to improve in certain parts of the game. We got good starting pitching today, which is such a big key as you get late into the season. Jake Fosgett was great and Nick Little pitched well – we put him in some tough spots at times. Our bats came through with a big inning. We’re trying to approach it the same way.”
Dupic has been careful about letting Fosgett work deep into games, but the righty from Carlsbad, Calif., has been downright electric. In Friday’s outing, he tossed six shutout frames with two hits allowed. He recorded nine more strikeouts and now has a season K total of 89 in 48 innings (1.31 ERA). He’s been so dominant that pro scouts have begun to take a look.
Fosgett (8-0) just needed a little bit of run support. Adams finally got Concordia on the board in the top of the fifth of game 1 with an RBI single. Then in the sixth, a Teyt Johnson base hit that was misplayed in the outfield plated a run and Jakob Faulk followed with an RBI single of his own.
The Bulldogs fell behind 3-0 in game 2 before their eight-run, third-inning outburst. That particular frame featured seven hits and two walks. The significant blows were delivered by Joey Grabanski (bases clearing double) and pinch hitter Noah Janssen (bases clearing triple). Other RBI hits came from Keaton Candor (single) and Johnson (single).
Little (6-1) was a workhorse on the mound in covering 8.1 innings. He allowed six runs, but only two were earned, on 10 hits and two walks. He also struck out nine Broncos. The performances of Fosgett and Little made for light bullpen usage. Nathan Buckallew completed the shutout in game 1 by getting the final three outs (fifth save in 2021). In game 2, AJ Cotton recorded the last two outs on the mound.
Ten Bulldogs collected at least one hit on the day, including three with three or more hits: Adams (4-for-9), Grabanski (3-for-7) and Johnson (3-for-7). Jesse Garcia made his one hit count – a two-run double to increase the lead in game 2.
The regular season will come to an end in Mitchell, S.D., on Sunday. The doubleheader with Dakota Wesleyan (14-23, 7-17 GPAC) will get started at 1 p.m. CT. Concordia clinched the 2017 GPAC regular season title at this same location.