OMAHA, Neb. – Big swings, tense moments and even a walk-off celebration characterized a wild Wednesday (May 19) of play at the NAIA National Championship Opening Round in the Bellevue Bracket. For the first time in the history of the program, Concordia University Baseball has reached an opening round championship final. The Bulldogs came through with their season on the line and outslugged No. 21 MidAmerica Nazarene University (Kan.), 11-10, and bracket host Bellevue University, 13-8, at Brown Park in Omaha, Neb.
The two victories leave Head Coach Ryan Dupic’s squad (41-10) one away from advancing to the NAIA World Series. Not only that, Dupic earned win No. 200 as a head coach in a contest that was tough on the ticker.
“It wasn’t always pretty – there were some things we could have done better,” Dupic said. “Once you get to this point of the season it’s just about playing the next pitch and staying with things. Obviously we were terrific today offensively. We gave up a decent amount of runs too, but we were probably a little bit better than that (pitching-wise), particularly in the second game. What Nick Little did today was pretty special on one day of rest.”
Keaton Candor and Jesse Garcia both went deep twice on Wednesday while surpassing the program’s former all-time career record of 27 home runs. Garcia hammered a no-doubter of a three-run blast in the eighth inning of the first game of the day. That shot put Concordia up, 10-8, over MidAmerica Nazarene, which led for a majority of the game. On a day when nothing came easy, the Pioneers knotted the score in the top of the ninth.
That simply set the stage for a more dramatic conclusion. The Bulldogs kept their season alive when Beau Dorman drilled a line-drive RBI single to left, making for a walk-off mobbing between first and second base. Against MNU, Garcia powdered the baseball by supplying a pair of a doubles, a home run and six RBIs. Candor also belted a two-run blast in the seventh.
Then in a rematch with Bellevue (Bruins defeated the Bulldogs, 7-3, on Tuesday), Concordia appeared on its way to a blowout win when it built a 9-1 lead behind Little, the team’s starting pitcher. Garcia homered in the second prior to an outburst in the third. That particular frame featured an RBI double from Candor, an RBI single from Ben Berg and a three-run homer rocketed off the bat of Jakob Faulk. Two innings later, Berg produced another RBI single and Teyt Johnson drove in two more with a base hit.
Bellevue didn’t quit. It was helped by a pair of errors in the sixth. The gaffes came back to haunt the Bulldogs when Chaz Lopez crushed a grand slam to right center. The Bruin fan contingent got rocking in both the sixth and seventh innings. In the seventh, Cody Banks smashed a two-run bomb that got Bellevue within one run, 9-8.
The momentum swung back to Concordia in the eighth with the help of a Joey Grabanski RBI single and a three-run homer from Candor. The lead had swelled back up to 13-8. Candor, who hails from Merrill, Iowa, registered three hits and four RBIs in the contest. Meanwhile, Berg, Garcia and Johnson also rapped out multiple hits.
Little (8-1) had started against MNU on Monday and came back on short rest to throw 6.1 innings (only three of his eight runs allowed were earned). The program’s all-time wins leader tossed three shutout frames before running into trouble. Dupic then turned to Ryan Samuelson out of the bullpen. Samuelson was unhittable. He fired 2.2 innings and racked up seven strikeouts while allowing only one base runner to reach (on an intentional walk).
There’s no doubt these were emotional wins, but the Bulldogs will have to quickly move on. Said Dupic, “We’re just living in the present right now. We were really focused on playing that game. I haven’t thought at all about tomorrow. We’ll regroup and get some rest.”
Both Concordia and Bellevue will be playing for the fifth time in four days when they meet up on Thursday. Game time has been moved up to 10:30 a.m. CT. Brown Park will again serve as the venue. In a war of attrition, but teams may have to get creative from a pitching perspective. The Bulldogs used six pitchers (including starter Alex Johnson) in Wednesday’s game against MNU. Reliever Nathan Buckallew wound up getting the win. As Dupic said, “We’ll figure it out tomorrow morning.”
Thursday’s winner will be one of 10 teams that earns a spot in the NAIA World Series, which will play out in Lewiston, Idaho, May 28 – June 4. While Concordia has never reached the World Series, Bellevue has twice advanced to that territory in its program’s history.