SIOUX CENTER, Iowa – After a one-day break between doubleheaders, the Concordia University Baseball team returned to Sioux Center, Iowa, and took care of business on a gusty Saturday (April 23) at the ballpark. The Bulldogs used the conditions to their advantage while homering eight times on the day in the process of earning wins over Dordt by scores of 9-2 and 14-5. Program all-time home run king Keaton Candor went deep three times on Saturday and Tanner Tompkins drove in seven runs in game one.
Head Coach Ryan Dupic’s squad swept the four-game series from the Defenders and moved to 29-12-1 overall (18-6 GPAC). Concordia is in the midst of playing its final eight regular season games on the road.
“It was kind of a weird weekend with moving the first games up to Thursday and then coming here Saturday,” Dupic said. “There were at least 30 and sometimes 40 mile-per-hour winds. At one point it was blowing out and then it was more of a crosswind towards right. By and large, we handled it well. On a day like today, you can’t give the other team extra opportunities with defensive mistakes or walks. We really needed to throw strikes – we did a pretty good job of that. We had some big swings obviously. We’re happy to get a couple wins and head home.”
As part of a five-hit, three-homer, six-RBI day, Candor became the program’s all-time leader in runs scored while padding his school records for games played, home runs and RBIs. He’s now the first player in program history to reach 40 career home runs. His first blast of the day came as part of a five-run seventh inning that put game one out of reach. Candor then left the yard in the first and third innings of game two, which Concordia led by an 11-1 score after three innings.
The big blows of game one were provided by Tompkins, who crushed a grand slam in the fourth (second this season) and then a three-run bomb in the seventh. In addition, Joey Grabanski homered twice on the day and Jay Adams led off game two with a four-bagger. At the close of the weekend, there is now a four-way tie for the team home run lead this season. Adams, Candor, Grabanski and Jaidan Quinn have each homered 12 times.
Four Bulldogs collected at least three hits on Saturday: Candor (5-for-10), Adams (4-for-9), Alec Blakestad (3-for-6) and Ty Nekoliczak (3-for-8). Blakestad also drew four walks while blazing a path down the first base line. In game two, Ben Berg doubled, tripled and knocked in two runs. In the four-game series as a whole, Candor went 7-for-16 with a double, four home runs and nine RBIs.
On the mound, Alex Johnson fired 6.1 innings in Saturday’s first game and racked up 11 strikeouts. He moved his record to 6-0 while allowing just one earned run on five hits and three walks. Daniel Rivera got the final two outs to seal the third win of the series. In game two, Caden Johnson worked 5.1 innings, surrendering five runs (three earned) on seven hits and one walk while striking out six. Relivers Darrell Kundinger, Nathan Buckallew and Jacob Lycan were then called upon.
Dordt (12-28, 8-16 GPAC) is in a fight to try to get into the top eight of the GPAC standings. Star Defender shortstop Logan Cline homered in game two. Dordt made things a bit interesting in the second contest when it chipped the 11-1 deficit to 11-5. Concordia ended any hope of a rally by putting up one run in the eighth and two in the ninth.
The Bulldogs will close out the regular season next weekend (April 29-30) with a four-game series at Briar Cliff (25-15, 13-9 GPAC). The Chargers split a doubleheader at Mount Marty on Saturday in a matchup between the conference’s current third and fourth place teams. Those two sides will square off again on Sunday. Concordia is two games in front (in the loss column) of the Lancers (14-8 GPAC) in the race for the No. 2 spot in the league. The top two teams in the final standings are rewarded with the chance to host separate four-team pods in the GPAC tournament.