ORANGE CITY, Iowa – It was home run derby on Thursday (March 30) for Joey Grabanski, who keeps mashing majestic blasts as Concordia’s right-handed version of Babe Ruth. Grabanski left the yard four times in the latest doubleheader as the Bulldog Baseball team split with host Northwestern in Orange City, Iowa. After its rally fell short in a game one loss, 6-5, Concordia responded by pummeling the Red Raiders, 14-1, in game two. As a team, the Bulldogs left the yard eight times on Thursday while getting a strong pitching performance from Caden Bugarske.
Head Coach Ryan Dupic’s squad has moved to 20-10 overall (6-2 GPAC) halfway through a four-game series with Northwestern.
“I really am running out of ways to put words into what Joey’s done offensively,” Dupic said. “I don’t know what else you can say about him. He’s clearly one of the best hitters in the country. He’s a really good hitter and it helps that our lineup has good depth. It’s such a good group.”
Incredibly, Grabanski has recorded three three-homer games this 2023 season while moving to No. 2 on the current NAIA national home run leaderboard. In Thursday’s action, the slugger from Grand Forks, N.D., struck for a two-run homer in the third inning of game one before blasting three long balls in game two: a solo shot in the first, a two-run smash in the fifth and a moonshot of a two-run drive in the seventh. By day’s end, Grabanski pushed his season tally to 18 home runs (53 for his career).
Concordia did its best work in the sixth inning of game two when it turned a 5-0 lead into a 12-0 rout. In that frame, run-scoring hits were contributed by Ty Nekoliczak (two-run single), Jay Adams (two-run homer), Jesse Garcia (two-run homer) and Tanner Tompkins (RBI single). In the game two victory, Nekoliczak, Tompkins and Alec Blakestad notched two hits apiece. While Grabanski drove in five runs, Nekoliczak plated three.
All that production supplied a nice cushion for Bugarske, who went 5.1 innings and picked up his second win of 2023. He limited Northwestern to one run on five hits and a walk while striking out five. He was relieved in the sixth by Ernie Snyder, who worked out of a jam while maintaining the large lead. Daniel Rivera then tossed a 1-2-3 seventh to lock up the win.
Dupic is still mixing things up from a pitching perspective while trying to get the most out of an improving staff. Said Dupic, “We’re trying to be flexible. As we evaluate our team right now, we have guys who can do different things. We just wanted to change things up a little this weekend – we’re not sure what we’ll do the next doubleheader. Frankie (Cresta) has been great. It just didn’t go the way we wanted today. Qwin Zabokrtsky and Blake Benson did a great job keeping us in the ballgame and we got a great start from Bugarske in the second game. I was really pleased and proud of those guys.”
Cresta was pulled after 1.1 innings of game one. He gave up two homers to Kip Cullinan, who belted a two-run shot in the first and then a three-run blast in the second. Those two swings accounted for most of the Red Raider offense for the entire day. Zabokrtsky and Benson combined to throw 4.2 scoreless innings out of the bullpen. This was Benson’s first career relief appearance for the Bulldogs.
In addition to Grabanski’s four homers, Adams crushed two homers and Ben Berg and Garcia added one apiece for the day. The overall leading hitters for Concordia on Thursday were the likes of Grabanski (4-for-8), Tompkins (3-for-5) and Blakestad (3-for-6). Berg has collected four home runs in a six-day stretch.
Northwestern’s GPAC win streak reached five after it won the first game. The Red Raiders (12-16, 6-4 GPAC) managed to hold onto a lead that was cut from 6-2 to 6-5. Brett Shelton picked up the victory on the mound while Ryan Reynolds notched his sixth save of the season for Coach Brian Wede’s club.
The series at Northwestern will resume on Monday with a scheduled first pitch at 1 p.m. CT. The series was reconfigured in an effort to take advantage of the most favorable weather conditions. Originally, the Bulldogs and Red Raiders had been scheduled to play Friday-Saturday.