One of seven NAIA programs nationally to win at least 40 games in each of the past three seasons, Concordia University Baseball reconvened this fall in preparation for the 2024 campaign. Some things have changed, as program stalwarts Ben Berg and Jesse Garcia exhausted their eligibility and Berg immediately transitioned into a coaching role. With hitting coach Caleb Lang having departed to take on a head coaching position, Bulldog skipper Ryan Dupic moved quickly to promote Berg into the lead assistant role.
While those changes are significant, the constant for Concordia remains the slugging and prolific nature of its offense. For proven stars like Jay Adams, Joey Grabanski and Jaidan Quinn, the fall is about simply fine-tuning their approaches. Entering his 10th year leading the program, Dupic is sticking with a tried and true formula for player development.
“Things were pretty similar,” says Dupic of the way this fall has been structured. “I think we’re at a point where we have to structure it the way we do, based on field availability, academic schedules and weather. I think we found something that works for this timeframe and for what we have in place. We spend about five weeks practicing in the fall with a lot of scrimmage stuff. We did scrimmage Southeast Community College, which was great. It gave us a chance to play somebody, and it’s hard to find those opportunities this time of year. We’re using a few weeks in the offseason here to do some training and things of that nature too.”
In other words, there’s no reason to mess with success. An offense that has averaged more than 500 runs scored and more than 100 home runs per season over the past three years will remain a strength. For those who followed Lang’s Twitter account this fall, they saw Bulldogs continue to mash baseballs over the wall at Plum Creek Park. Added to the mix were the likes of transfer Brad Hallock and freshman Matt Rhoades. Meanwhile, the pitching staff is still in the process of coming together and persevering through injuries. However, Dupic likes the potential upside.
Overall, the talent level in the program has kept steady at a rate that figures to make Concordia a player once again on the conference and national scenes. Opposing pitchers will still find it a perilous exercise to pitch to this lineup.
“We bring back enough that we still feel pretty good about that part of our team,” Dupic said. “We have a lot of high-end talent between guys like Joey, Jaidan Quinn, Jay Adams, Alec Blakestad and Ty Nekoliczak. When you’re bringing back those guys, you can’t complain. We’re going to miss Ben and Jesse. Those guys were huge players for us. No question, I wish those guys were still around. We’ve got some really good players to start us off. I think our depth will be really quality. There are some other good guys like Tanner Tompkins and some new players. I expect the position players and our offense to be a strength.”
What is it that the likes of Grabanski and Quinn can do better a season after both players went deep a school record-setting 27 times? Dupic appreciates the way both sluggers continue to hone their ability to stay disciplined within the strike zone and stay within themselves. Dupic commends them for understanding they don’t have to carry the team because of the wealth of talent up and down the lineup. Grabanski (reigning GPAC Player of the Year) was joined on the 2023 All-GPAC first team by fellow returning position players in Adams, Blakestad, Nekoliczak and Quinn.
The offensive production will be there. Dupic is putting more focus now on run prevention as Concordia looks to maximize its defensive alignment. Fullerton College transfer Jimmy Blumberg saw time at shortstop this fall and his arrival could mean things get shuffled around a bit. A mainstay at second base in his career, Adams even played some at third base in the fall as part of the tinkering process.
“We brought in a shortstop we really like, Jimmy Blumberg, who can really defend,” Dupic said. “That creates some positional flexibility for us with guys like Ty Nekoliczak. We tried to create a little bit more competitive atmosphere at third base in the fall. I thought Jaidan Quinn did a really nice job this fall. We moved Jay Adams and Ty Nekoliczak around a little bit. We’re trying to create some different options. Joey can play left or he can play first. Jay obviously can play second base, and we’ve tried him a little at third. I think Ty can play short, second, left or center. He can move anywhere. There are a lot of options there. In the fall, we were looking more for options as opposed to solidifying it. We need to make a lot of progress defensively and with pitch execution and run prevention. That’s going to be a key for our season.”
The pitching staff is still taking shape. In a perfect world, Alex Johnson would return to 100 percent health and give Concordia a potential workhorse ace of the rotation. Both Alex and Caden Johnson have spent the fall working through injury. Caden has earned First Team All-GPAC accolades in two-straight seasons as a dependable righty in the rotation. The staff also features others such as Blake Benson, Caden Bugarske and Christian Gutierrez. Kellen Ingram and Maverick Wylder are two others battling through injuries in hopes of making an impact in 2024.
Mayville State transfer Braxton Greenburg is another arm capable of logging innings next spring. Given the current circumstances, Dupic is glad there’s still time for the staff to round into form. Said Dupic, “Fall was tough for us pitching-wise. We still have had some guys coming back from injuries, like Alex Johnson, Caden Johnson, Maverick Wylder, Kellen Ingram and a couple of our newcomers. You can’t push guys much in the fall when they’re working through something to come back. You have to be patient. We didn’t get to see some of our top guys as frequently as we would have preferred. I think we’ll have more depth this year. I think one-through-12 will be a little bit better. The key is going to be our top-end guys. We need to take steps with our Nos. 1 and 2 in our rotation. We need to have consistency in the back end of our bullpen and know what we’re getting out of our closer and setup guys. Our overall depth has a chance to be quality. Now we need to get more high-end production from the top guys on our staff.”
The coaching staff transition with Berg replacing Lang seems to be coming along smoothly. Berg spent the past five seasons as the program’s primary catcher for most of that time. Berg knows there’s no reason to rock the boat. It’s about building upon the achievements of the past several years.
“I think Ben’s going to do a great job,” Dupic said. “I think the guys are really welcoming him in a positive way. Our players appreciate the culture that we have and the processes and systems we have offensively. There’s a strong desire to continue to grow in that but also not flip that thing on its head, especially in the middle of the school year. I think our guys appreciate Ben’s awareness of that, his wisdom and ability to continue to move things forward.”
Workouts will continue through the winter months in preparation for a season that will get started on Feb. 10, 2024. The 2024 Concordia Baseball schedule can be found HERE.