SEWARD, Neb. – For the sixth time since 2017, the Concordia University Baseball program will serve as a GPAC tournament pod host. The Bulldogs celebrated a 2024 GPAC regular season championship that came down to the wire this past Sunday. After pulling even with Doane atop the standings, Head Coach Ryan Dupic’s squad earned the tiebreaker for the league’s No. 1 seed and has clinched a spot in the NAIA National Championship Opening Round. As the top seed, Concordia will be joined this week in Seward by No. 4 seed Briar Cliff, No. 5 seed Midland and No. 8 seed Mount Marty. The GPAC tournament features a double-elimination format.
2024 GPAC Tournament – Concordia Bracket
--Full Bracket
May 2-4 | Plum Creek Park (Seward, Neb.)
--Live Webcasts (available for all games with a cost of $8.95/day)
--Live Stats
Thursday, May 2
Game 1 – (4) Briar Cliff vs. (5) Midland 4 p.m.
Game 2 – (1) Concordia vs. (8) Mount Marty, 7 p.m.
Friday, May 3
Game 3 – Game 1 Winner vs. Game 2 Winner, 12 p.m.
Game 4 – Game 1 Loser vs. Game 2 Loser, 3 p.m.
Game 5 – Game 4 Winner vs. Game 3 Loser, 6 p.m.
Saturday, May 4
Game 6 – Game 3 Winner vs. Game 5 Winner, 12 p.m.
Game 7 – Game 6 Winner vs. Game 6 Loser, 3 p.m. (if necessary)
Admission: Admission is $10 for adults/senior citizens and $3 for K-12. Only those with NAIA passes and GPAC student ID’s will be admitted free of charge.
By the numbers
· Under Head Coach Ryan Dupic, the Concordia Baseball program has stood out as a model of consistent excellence. The Bulldogs have claimed their fourth GPAC regular season championship during Dupic’s tenure, which began with the 2015 season. From 2017 through 2024, Concordia has turned in respective GPAC regular season place finishes of first, sixth, first, first, second, second and first. There was no conference season in 2020 (COVID-19) when the Bulldogs very likely would have placed in the top two while led by NAIA National Pitcher of the Year candidate Jason Munsch at the time. Remarkably, Concordia has gone a combined 108-34 in GPAC regular season games since the start of the 2019 season.
· The program has become known nationally for its offensive prowess. With nine combined home runs in this past Sunday’s doubleheader sweep of Mount Marty (wins by scores of 12-3 and 14-4), the Bulldogs eclipsed 100 home runs for the third-straight season. Concordia hit 90 home runs in its NAIA World Series qualifying season of 2021 and then followed that historic campaign up with 113 homers in 2022, 117 homers in 2023 and 102 homers so far in 2024. As the NAIA’s all-time home run king, Joey Grabanski has become the posterchild of the offensive surge the past few years. Grabanski has run his career home run total to 84 in 217 career games as a Bulldog. Jaidan Quinn mashed three homers in game two of the twin bill versus Mount Marty and pushed his career home run figure to 70. Concordia enters the week ranked No. 3 nationally in home runs behind only Kansas Wesleyan (122) and Cumberlands (Ky.) (117).
· Dupic and the program honored a group of 12 seniors this past Saturday. Special recognition was given to Grabanski and Jay Adams for their record-breaking achievements. Not only the all-time NAIA home run leader, the Grand Forks, N.D., native Grabanski owns program records for RBIs (287), total bases (597), walks (126) and batting average (.382). As for Adams, he became the first player in program history to reach 300 career hits (earlier this season) and is the program standard bearer for career games played (239), at bats (929), hits (335), runs scored (276) and doubles (68). Grabanski needs six more hits to join Adams in the 300 club and is eight RBIs shy of the NAIA all-time record of 295 by Tim Leslie of Lubbock Christian (Texas). Some teammates are coming up on 200 career hits, including Jaidan Quinn (190), Alec Blakestad (186) and Ty Nekoliczak (185). The Greeley, Neb., native Nekoliczak homered versus Mount Marty and surpassed 100 career RBIs.
· Two Bulldogs in particular from the senior class have been instrumental in the team’s recent success. In last week’s action, Jacob Lycan (fifth year of college baseball) was called upon for extended relief outings at Jamestown (3.1 IP) and versus Dakota Wesleyan (2.2 IP). Over those two appearances, Lycan racked up 10 strikeouts and allowed only two hits. In 14 appearances this season, Lycan has covered 22.1 innings and owns a 1.61 ERA and 27 strikeouts to go along with an opponent batting average of .184. Another senior, Caden Johnson earned his 24th career victory this past weekend and has been stellar over his last two outings – one run allowed in seven innings at Jamestown and two runs allowed in six innings versus Mount Marty. In 52 career pitching appearances (40 starts), Johnson is 24-7 with a 4.29 ERA and 232 strikeouts in 212 innings. Special mention is also deserved for junior Christian Gutierrez, who has logged at least six innings in six-straight starts. The native of La Mirada, Calif., owns a record of 7-3 to go with a 3.10 ERA in 72.2 innings.
· The share of the GPAC regular season title was made possible by an eight-game win streak to close the regular season. The streak began following a disappointing conclusion to the four-game series at Morningside (April 13-14). The Bulldogs proceeded to earn doubleheader sweeps of Hastings, Jamestown, Dakota Wesleyan and Mount Marty. That timeframe (April 21-28) featured some unique situations and travel challenges. After dominating Hastings (combined score of 32-5) on April 21, Concordia immediately got on the road and headed out for a doubleheader at Jamestown the next day. Then, this past weekend, the Bulldogs moved a home doubleheader to Salina, Kan., a drive south of roughly two hours and 45 minutes. The day before that, many members of the team worked as grounds crew at Plum Creek Park in order to have the field ready for the April 27 doubleheader with Dakota Wesleyan. During the eight-game win streak, Concordia outscored its opponents by a combined total of 73-18. The Bulldogs batted .335 while their foes hit a paltry .240.
· Heading into the postseason, Concordia leads the GPAC in essentially every single offensive category, including runs scored (437), batting average (.329), on-base percentage (.438), slugging percentage (.591), home runs (102) and extra-base hits (185). The individual leaderboards are also littered with Bulldogs. The GPAC’s top five RBI leaders all call Concordia home: Grabanski (75), Quinn (67), Matt Rhoades (50), Blakestad (49) and Adams (41). The top three in batting average are Grabanski (.398), Quinn (.393) and Adams (.388).
· Discounting the 2020 COVID-19 shortened season, Concordia has reached the GPAC tournament championship game in five of the past six seasons (2017, 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023) with postseason titles coming in 2021 and 2022. During Dupic’s tenure (2015 season to the present), Concordia has been the GPAC’s premier program. Consider that in that stretch, the Bulldogs lead all GPAC baseball programs in overall wins (319), GPAC regular season wins (159), overall winning percentage (.645), conference winning percentage (.674) and total GPAC championships (six). In addition to the 2020 and 2021 conference tournament titles, Concordia seized GPAC regular season crowns in 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2024. Prior to Dupic’s arrival, the program had not won a conference championship since 1986. In 2015, the program ended a drought without a winning overall record that had lasted since 1979.
Concordia Bracket opponents
(4) Briar Cliff (26-20, 18-10 GPAC | NAIA Bo Chip: 77) – Head Coach Corby McGlauflin has led his team to one of the league's biggest turnarounds as the Chargers went from 9-19 in league play last season to 18-10 in 2024. Briar Cliff split a doubleheader with Concordia and also took three of four from Morningside as part of a bounce-back season. The Chargers will enter the postseason averaging 5.7 runs per game while sporting a 5.75 ERA. The leaders of the offensive attack have been Drew Peterson (.314 BA, 9 HR, 31 RBIs) and Cam Reimer (.306 BA, 7 HR, 38 RBIs). The top arms out of the rotation are Kyler Steinborn (3-3, 3.52 ERA, 61.1 IP) and Carter Schorg (5-3, 4.92 ERA, 64 IP). Briar Cliff’s lone GPAC tournament title as a program came in 2003. The Chargers have won three GPAC regular season championships in their history.
(5) Midland (30-17, 16-12 GPAC | NAIA Bo Chip: 90) – Midland is another team that has ascended in the standings as compared to a year ago. The Warriors have jumped up to 30 wins after finishing 2023 at 22-28 overall. Shea Bennett stepped into the head coaching role prior to this season. Outside of Concordia, Midland boasts one of the league’s top power hitters in third baseman Joshua Hardamon, who is batting .354 with 15 home runs and 38 RBIs to go along with a .720 slugging percentage. In addition, Hayden Crawford has homered eight times for a squad that ranks third in the GPAC in slugging (.470). The team’s most successful pitcher has been Zachary Vincent, who is 3-1 with a 2.82 ERA and 43 strikeouts in 44.2 innings. Midland lost three of four to Concordia this season. The Warriors won the GPAC tournament as recently as 2017.
(8) Mount Marty (28-21, 14-14 GPAC | NAIA Bo Chip: 67) – Mount Marty enters the postseason with a higher NAIA Bo Chip rating (67th) than many teams in the GPAC seeded above it. Josh Teichroew is in his second season leading the program after taking over for longtime head coach Andy Bernatow (now the school’s AD). The Lancers have the ability to score runs in bunches, as evidenced by their average of 5.98 runs per game. The likes of Bodi Wallar (.374 BA, 8 HR, 36 RBIs) and Shugo Kondo (.346 BA, 5 HR, 20 RBIs) pace the team in batting average while Kiko Nunez (eight homers) supplies power in the middle of the order. The rotation has featured four main starters, headed by Slayder Watterson (4-2, 4.22 ERA, 53.1 IP). Concordia draws Mount Marty immediately after sweeping a doubleheader from the Lancers to finish the regular season. Mount Marty’s one GPAC tournament title came in 2012.
GPAC Championship Game
The winners that emerge from the Concordia and Doane Brackets will meet in a winner-take-all GPAC championship game on Tuesday, May 9 (time TBA). The highest remaining seed will host the title game. The tournament champion earns an automatic bid to the national tournament. As the regular season champion (No. 1 seed), Concordia has locked up one of the league’s two automatic bids to nationals. If Concordia happens to win the postseason title as well, the second bid would go to the Tigers as the regular season runner up.