SEWARD, Neb. – The Concordia-Doane rivalry will be renewed on Monday with a GPAC postseason championship on the line. The two sides advanced through their respective pods of the GPAC Tournament to set the stage for Monday’s 3 p.m. CT first pitch at the Doane Ballfield Complex in Crete, Neb. Both the Bulldogs and Tigers have clinched automatic bids to the NAIA National Championship Opening Round. Concordia and Doane also met in GPAC Championship Games played in 2021, 2023 and 2024. Since the start of the 2021 season, the Bulldogs and Tigers have been responsible for all but one GPAC regular season/postseason championship.
2026 GPAC Championship Game
Monday, May 4: Concordia (37-15) at No. 10 Doane (43-9), 3 p.m.
--Live Webcast | Live Stats | Location: Doane Ballfield Complex (Crete, Neb.)
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
• The GPAC tournament success continues under Head Coach Ryan Dupic’s leadership. The program has reached the conference tournament title game in 2017, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2026 (seven times total). During that stretch (dating back to 2017), the Bulldogs have gone a combined 28-9 in GPAC postseason games while celebrating tournament championships in 2021, 2022 and 2024. Concordia defeated Doane in the 2021 and 2024 title games. The Tigers got the upper hand in the 2023 championship game, which was decided by a 1-0 pitcher’s duel. This will be the first time the Bulldogs have played the title game in Crete. (The 2023 contest was moved from Crete to Lincoln’s Den Hartog Field).
Previous GPAC Championship games:
--2024: Concordia 5, Doane 1
--2023: Doane 1, Concordia 0
--2022: Concordia 7, Jamestown 6 (10 innings)
--2021: Concordia 7, Doane 2
--2019: Jamestown 3, Concordia 0
--2017: Midland 5, Concordia 3
• The second-seeded Bulldogs cruised through their own Concordia Bracket, winning by scores of 4-1 over No. 7 seed Mount Marty and 12-1 (7 inn.) and 14-5 over No. 6 seed Dakota Wesleyan. Concordia never met No. 3 seed Morningside, which was twice beaten by the Tigers of Mitchell, S.D. Over the Bulldogs’ 3-0 run in the bracket, they outscored their opponents by a combined total of 30-7. In the postseason, Concordia’s offense has slashed .319/.455/.564 with five home runs while its opponents have slashed .277/.348/.327. The Bulldogs’ top hitters (in terms of batting average) this postseason have been Bronx Lewis (4-for-8), Jake Watson (5-for-12), Jimmy Blumberg (4-for-10), Carson Burnett (4-for-11) and Luke Wilson (3-for-10). Watson has driven in nine runs (six RBIs in the Concordia Bracket final) while Burnett and Lewis have homered twice apiece and Wilson left the yard once this past week at Sherman Field in Lincoln. Over 25 innings of work, Concordia’s pitching staff surrendered only five earned runs and posted a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 34-to-8.
• From a pitching perspective, sophomore right-hander Micah Sweeton was the headliner over the first three postseason games. Sweeton threw the Bulldogs’ second game (vs. DWU) and fired a seven-inning complete game that featured a career-high tying 14 strikeouts. He allowed one run on six hits and three walks. The Temecula, Calif., native has been on a roll. Over his last four starts, Sweeton has logged 26.1 innings and has posted a 1.37 ERA (four earned runs) while racking up 43 strikeouts. On the season, Sweeton is 4-2 with a 2.08 ERA and 67 strikeouts in 39 innings. Opposing batters are hitting only .189 against him.
• Pitching depth has been one of the defining aspects of the 2026 Bulldogs. In game one of the tournament, ace Alex Johnson was forced to remove himself after two innings versus Mount Marty. Dupic then turned to Harrison Hoiekvam (2.1 IP), DJ Andersen (4 IP) and Trent Schlim (0.2 IP). They combined to allow just a single unearned run over seven innings. Andersen was especially impressive in notching seven strikeouts in an extended relief outing. The bullpen also shouldered a heavy load in Friday’s win. After starter Caden Bugarske went three-plus innings, Concordia called upon Devin Gonor (4 IP), Schlim (1.1 IP) and Warren Rose (0.2 IP). Very few teams boast the same collection of power arms. The Bulldogs continue to lead the NAIA in strikeouts per nine innings (12.05). Concordia’s individual leaders in that category include Hoiekvam (16.30), Sweeton (15.46), Johnson (14.62), Rose (14.54), Andersen (14.09), Daiten Schmidt (11.57), Schlim (11.22) and Bugarske (10.87).
• The Cedar Rapids, Iowa, native Bronx Lewis slugged two home runs at Sherman Field, pushing his season total to 21. He leads the GPAC in that category and ranks seventh nationally. The 21 homers are the seventh most in a single season for a Concordia player. The program has had at least one player hit 20 home runs for a fourth straight season. The others during that stretch were Jaidan Quinn (25+ homers three times), Joey Grabanski (26 HR in 2024 / 27 HR in 2023) and Brad Hallock (23 HR in 2025). The ’26 roster includes seven players who have hit at least five home runs. Lewis is followed in the home run category by Luke Wilson (10) and Jake Watson (nine). Not just a home run hitter, Lewis popped defensively this past week with two outfield assists in the win over Mount Marty.
• A Lincoln Christian High School alum who did not appear in a single varsity game as a freshman in 2025, Watson has been a breakout star in 2026. He has started at catcher in every conference league game and in each contest so far this postseason. On the year, Watson is slashing .371/.470/.662 with nine home runs and 51 RBIs. Other top offensive players this season have included Bronx Lewis (.339/.479/.778), Luke Wilson (.327/.421/.592), Carson Burnett (.315/.474/.527), Jaeden Jordahl (.293/.478/.451), Alex Draper (.286/.377/.505) and Andrew Fetty (.266/.417/.448). As a team, the Bulldogs are slashing .286/.420/.506 with an average of 7.31 runs scored per game.
• With the first win of the postseason, Ryan Dupic achieved a milestone in earning career victory No. 400 in his 12-year tenure as head coach of the Bulldogs. The winningest coach in program history (402-206-1), Dupic has led Concordia to a combined eight GPAC championships. For the eighth time, Dupic will lead the Bulldogs to the NAIA national tournament. His 2021 team qualified for the NAIA World Series. Prior to Dupic’s arrival in 2015, the program had not posted a winning overall record since 1979. Entering the 2026 season, the Bulldogs had won at least 40 games in each of the previous five seasons.
Scouting Doane
In recent years, Doane and Concordia have gone back and forth in duking it out for conference championships. Head Coach Josh Oltmans’ program has captured five GPAC regular season titles since the start of the ’21 season (two shared with Concordia). The Tigers are hoping to add another GPAC tournament championship, a feat the program celebrated in 2002, 2011 and 2023. The path to the 2026 GPAC Championship Game for Doane has included wins over Northwestern, 12-2, Briar Cliff, 11-4, Hastings, 14-5, and Hastings again, 9-2. The Tigers were forced to take the long route after being upset by No. 8 seed Hastings, 7-5, on day one of the tournament in Crete. Doane is an incredibly balanced team that leads the GPAC in the categories of batting average (.350), runs per game (8.85) and fielding percentage (.972) while ranking second to the Bulldogs in ERA (4.42). Three of the team’s lineup regulars are batting better than .400: Carter Roth (.446/.492/.723), Tanner Nelson (.430/.511/.538) and Grant Sommers (.404/.472/.732). The pitching staff has been headed by the likes of Kaden Crawford (9-2, 5.53 ERA, 70 IP), Gabe Rodriguez (8-1, 3.57 ERA, 68 IP), Riley Plummer (4-2, 6.16 ERA, 61.1 IP) and Nicolas Yard (7-0, 2.31 ERA, 50.2 IP). No matter the result on Monday, the Tigers will host one of the 10 NAIA Opening Round sites. Doane was ranked 10th in the latest NAIA coaches’ poll. The Tigers will make their eighth all-time national tournament appearance.
NAIA National Championship Selection Show
Concordia and Doane will learn of their draws for the 2026 NAIA National Championship Opening Round via the NAIA Selection Show scheduled for 4 p.m. CT on Wednesday (May 6). That show can be viewed by accessing the NAIA YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/user/PlayNAIA) at that date and time. Opening round host locations were announced by the NAIA on May 1 and can be found HERE. The opening round is slated to play out May 11-14 with the NAIA World Series to follow in Lewiston, Idaho, May 22-30.